Results 8,661-8,680 of 26,465 for speaker:John McGuinness
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Discussion (16 Jan 2018)
John McGuinness: Does the Minister's officials in the unit who read the minutes feel they are getting the full picture, in the minutes, of the bank meetings? Is there an indication that they are getting just barely the amount of information to satisfy the fact that they have to give the minutes to the Department?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Discussion (16 Jan 2018)
John McGuinness: I want to put on record my support for Deputy Pearse Doherty's view that until such time as cases are taken against individuals within the banks over what happened with the tracker mortgage issues, the public will not be satisfied and the banks will not clean up their act or their culture. From dealing with the banks in this committee it seems to me that as they get more profitable and back...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Discussion (16 Jan 2018)
John McGuinness: Until we get banking and banker accountability and transparency, we will not know what is going on within those banks and what arrangements they are making. Is there any merit in having an ethical officer appointed within each of the banks by the Minister and paid for by the banks, as one would have in similar institutions in the financial services sector?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Discussion (16 Jan 2018)
John McGuinness: We will have an opportunity to engage with the Minister again on this issue.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Discussion (16 Jan 2018)
John McGuinness: The same applies to the Central Bank, in terms of how it conducts its business. We set out legislation for risk officers. One such risk officer was Mr. Jonathan Sugarman and we met the Central Bank recently on this. Mr. Sugarman reported breaches of the regulations to the Central Bank and he followed the letter of the law in terms of the legislation. He was the one who found himself being...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Discussion (16 Jan 2018)
John McGuinness: What about Capita and Pepper and the agents that would manage on their behalf?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Discussion (16 Jan 2018)
John McGuinness: Okay. I want to ask the Minister a question on foot of that. Any of the vulture funds that we have invited here have refused to come before us. Capita and Pepper are considering the invitation. As they are regulated entities working on behalf of the vulture funds, I would like to see the Department in any exchanges it might have with them insisting that they take up the invitation to be...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Discussion (16 Jan 2018)
John McGuinness: It is good to hear that Minister. I will put on record again the need for organisations such as Capita and Pepper to consider our invitations to give their side of the story because we need to understand what is happening within their organisations as well.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Discussion (16 Jan 2018)
John McGuinness: I will touch on the Consumer Protection (Regulation of Credit Servicing Firms) Act 2015. One of the modules we intend to touch on will be on how banks and vulture funds are dealing with loans in the SME sector. The financial ombudsman is prohibited from dealing with a case which involves an SME with a turnover of more than €3 million. In Europe, an SME is considered to be anything...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Discussion (16 Jan 2018)
John McGuinness: I am suggesting that the cap be changed because the Central Bank cannot deal with individual cases and the ombudsman is confined to dealing with cases where the amount involved is under €3 million. Where a business that is thriving and repaying its loans finds itself tied up with a vulture fund, there are often competing organisations in those vulture funds. In other words,...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Discussion (16 Jan 2018)
John McGuinness: I understand that and so does the SME sector. Those involved are well able to have those conversations. I am talking about the difference between a massive vulture fund that can almost treat the likes of those agencies here, in terms of the regulation of credit servicing, as puppets. They just move them around. Within their organisations, as they describe it, they have Chinese walls but...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Discussion (16 Jan 2018)
John McGuinness: Thank you very much. On page 29 of the programme for Government, there is a commitment on protecting small and medium enterprises, SMEs, and those with loans transferred to non-regulated entities. There was a commitment given regarding the first year of Government, with certain matters to be dealt with in that context.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Discussion (16 Jan 2018)
John McGuinness: What progress has been made on that commitment in the programme for Government? If the Minister does not have the answer today-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Discussion (16 Jan 2018)
John McGuinness: You might come back to us on that.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Discussion (16 Jan 2018)
John McGuinness: Loan owners are not directly regulated. Is that correct?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Discussion (16 Jan 2018)
John McGuinness: It is the credit entity. What about regulating the loan owners? Why was that wording in the Bill?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Discussion (16 Jan 2018)
John McGuinness: I am referring to the Act of 2015.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Discussion (16 Jan 2018)
John McGuinness: I do not want to be unfair to the Minister.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Discussion (16 Jan 2018)
John McGuinness: I will furnish the questions to the Minister. We have come to the end of this session, unless there are any other matters relating to tracker mortgages. We will reschedule the reform end of it.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages: Discussion (16 Jan 2018)
John McGuinness: That is grand and good to hear. We will leave it at that. I thank the Minister and his officials.