Results 9,281-9,300 of 16,537 for speaker:Brian Lenihan Jnr

Approval of Credit Institutions (Financial Support) Scheme 2008: Motion (17 Oct 2008)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: In the current international climate, it is highly dangerous to set a deadline for a full public discussion on the floor of the House about such a matter. First, one must recall that the Government put in place this wide guarantee and its effect was to restore confidence in the banking system in the context of liquidity provision. That has been a real success of the guarantee operation. It...

Approval of Credit Institutions (Financial Support) Scheme 2008: Motion (17 Oct 2008)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: ——and I agree with him on this matter. However, it is a fact established by the Financial Regulator to his complete satisfaction that the Irish banks do not have a substantial exposure to such instruments. Members referred to the possible exposure of the banks in connection with the property sector in Ireland. It is undeniable and all of the analysts have pointed out the exposure....

Approval of Credit Institutions (Financial Support) Scheme 2008: Motion (17 Oct 2008)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: Yes, indeed. It is important to make that point because it is a distinction between the Irish banking system and the banking systems in other countries which have entered hazardous waters because of their exposure to sub-prime lending. Sub-prime lending was, in turn, discounted on the market and eventually the discounted instruments became useless and valueless.

Approval of Credit Institutions (Financial Support) Scheme 2008: Motion (17 Oct 2008)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: It is not that I will not come to the House. What I said was that I do not believe we should fix a time limit——

Approval of Credit Institutions (Financial Support) Scheme 2008: Motion (17 Oct 2008)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: Deputy Bruton referred to dividends. The scheme allows the Minister to make rules regarding the payment of dividends to maintain capital ratios. No dividends will be paid by covered institutions before such rules are made. The extent of the discussion on dividends is something to which shareholders have regard when examining these institutions. Of course I will return to the House if...

Approval of Credit Institutions (Financial Support) Scheme 2008: Motion (17 Oct 2008)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: These are very sensitive commercial matters and must be treated in this way. I am conscious of my responsibility to the House and I will always discharge it. However, I do not believe I should be tied down to a definite date in unveiling a plan for the recapitalisation of the banking system.

Approval of Credit Institutions (Financial Support) Scheme 2008: Motion (17 Oct 2008)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: There is a report every six months, as Deputy Bruton knows.

Approval of Credit Institutions (Financial Support) Scheme 2008: Motion (17 Oct 2008)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: The fundamental matter is that execution and action count, not strategies.

Approval of Credit Institutions (Financial Support) Scheme 2008: Motion (17 Oct 2008)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: That is what the Government showed on 30 September.

Approval of Credit Institutions (Financial Support) Scheme 2008: Motion (17 Oct 2008)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: When there is execution and action, I will take full responsibility.

Approval of Credit Institutions (Financial Support) Scheme 2008: Motion (17 Oct 2008)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: It is dangerous to name institutions in the House.

Approval of Credit Institutions (Financial Support) Scheme 2008: Motion (17 Oct 2008)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: No. The Deputy has asked a number of interesting questions. The Government took its initial decision on this issue on the night of 29-30 September last. I was not aware, until Deputy Burton mentioned it in the House this afternoon, that the date in question represented the end of the year, for auditing purposes, for a particular financial institution. Therefore, the fact mentioned by the...

Approval of Credit Institutions (Financial Support) Scheme 2008: Motion (17 Oct 2008)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: To be honest, I felt it was appropriate that it should be in the scheme in any event. I had raised the matter with my officials before the Commission expressed its view on the matter. A fine balance has to be struck on this issue. As Ireland is a small exposed economy, with a banking system that is crucially and critically dependent on international finance, it is important that the...

Approval of Credit Institutions (Financial Support) Scheme 2008: Motion (17 Oct 2008)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: No.

Approval of Credit Institutions (Financial Support) Scheme 2008: Motion (17 Oct 2008)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: I indicated in my Budget Statement this week that I am conducting a review of the operation of the National Pensions Reserve Fund. I intend to bring forward my views on that. If legislation is required as a result of the review, it will be introduced before the end of the year. I presume the reference to the Paulson formula is the idea of a company to manage toxic assets. I have not...

Approval of Credit Institutions (Financial Support) Scheme 2008: Motion (17 Oct 2008)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: I have not formulated views on it at this stage, because it is not an option I have examined. If the Deputy wishes me to examine it, then I will do so.

Approval of Credit Institutions (Financial Support) Scheme 2008: Motion (17 Oct 2008)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: I apologise to Deputy Morgan for interrupting, but I should have said to Deputy Burton that I certainly do not envisage that as a statutory function of the National Treasury Management Agency.

Approval of Credit Institutions (Financial Support) Scheme 2008: Motion (17 Oct 2008)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: There are a fair few questions there and it is difficult to work on a Committee Stage basis when I am asked a question on every paragraph. I will assist the Deputy as best I can. I wonder whether we should have had a proper Committee Stage so that we could go through the scheme paragraph by paragraph. Deputy Morgan started talking about enforcement and paragraph 35 deals with that. The...

Approval of Credit Institutions (Financial Support) Scheme 2008: Motion (17 Oct 2008)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: I remind the Deputy that the charge is there to secure a return to the taxpayer for the valuable benefit which sovereign Ireland has conferred upon the institution. That is a consideration which the Minister would be entitled to take into account in considering whether to permit an institution to leave the scheme. That is the reason for the insistence on ministerial consent in the scheme....

Approval of Credit Institutions (Financial Support) Scheme 2008: Motion (17 Oct 2008)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: Yes. It is within that framework that the revision is possible. The Deputy is correct and that is the position.