Results 1,001-1,020 of 7,777 for speaker:Joe Costello

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (12 Mar 2015)

Joe Costello: I have a question on correspondence.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (12 Mar 2015)

Joe Costello: On correspondence received.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (12 Mar 2015)

Joe Costello: Yes, the item that was circulated the last time. The representative of HSBC in London is not available. The correspondence from HSBC includes the statement that the representative of HSBC London is not available.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (12 Mar 2015)

Joe Costello: I have a question on the text of the correspondence as I am not sure what it means. Does it mean that the bank cannot make representatives available? Does it mean that they are not available at this moment? Will they be available at a later time? Would it be more appropriate for somebody from Geneva to attend? I know that London is the location of its headquarters, but the events took...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (12 Mar 2015)

Joe Costello: As it states they have no information, there is not much sense in writing about the specific issues involved if they are not able to answer questions. Is it a matter of the representative from London not being available at this time, or is it that they do not intend to make a representative from London available under any circumstances?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (12 Mar 2015)

Joe Costello: To come back to the letter, it makes it clear that nobody in Ireland is able to provide any useful information. It also makes it clear that HSBC is prepared to answer specific questions. It then makes a rather ambiguous statement that a representative from London is not available. Whether such a representative is not available at this time or whether it is not prepared to make a person...

Public Accounts Committee: Revenue Commissioners Investigation of HSBC Offshore Accounts (12 Mar 2015)

Joe Costello: Mr. Gallagher is very welcome. I welcome Mr. Cody in particular and congratulate him on his appointment. I will continue on with the corporate sector for a moment. Much of that sector has been ruled out for one reason or another and it is an enormous amount of money at €6.3 billion. I refer to global financial services companies and a number of corporate records which show that...

Public Accounts Committee: Revenue Commissioners Investigation of HSBC Offshore Accounts (12 Mar 2015)

Joe Costello: Why would such a large number of them have been dissolved in a particular period of time? The years were 1993 and 2000 but there is no evidence of other companies being dissolved later. Why was it the case here?

Public Accounts Committee: Revenue Commissioners Investigation of HSBC Offshore Accounts (12 Mar 2015)

Joe Costello: That is approximately 50% of all cases.

Public Accounts Committee: Revenue Commissioners Investigation of HSBC Offshore Accounts (12 Mar 2015)

Joe Costello: What happened to those cases then? After they were dissolved, where did they go?

Public Accounts Committee: Revenue Commissioners Investigation of HSBC Offshore Accounts (12 Mar 2015)

Joe Costello: Does Mr. Cody have any idea in those tens of thousands of cases whether they slipped off to another jurisdiction?

Public Accounts Committee: Revenue Commissioners Investigation of HSBC Offshore Accounts (12 Mar 2015)

Joe Costello: Was it just Kazakhstan or did Mr. Cody mention that country in passing?

Public Accounts Committee: Revenue Commissioners Investigation of HSBC Offshore Accounts (12 Mar 2015)

Joe Costello: Can Mr. Cody give the committee an idea of what jurisdictions were involved?

Public Accounts Committee: Revenue Commissioners Investigation of HSBC Offshore Accounts (12 Mar 2015)

Joe Costello: Was there a suspicion at the time that quite a number of them were dodgy operations?

Public Accounts Committee: Revenue Commissioners Investigation of HSBC Offshore Accounts (12 Mar 2015)

Joe Costello: Were any of those accounts routed through the Irish financial services area?

Public Accounts Committee: Revenue Commissioners Investigation of HSBC Offshore Accounts (12 Mar 2015)

Joe Costello: Regarding the disk the Revenue received from the French authorities, did the latter compile that disk or was it the raw information? Did the French authorities have a particular disk per seor did they cut and paste material for Ireland?

Public Accounts Committee: Revenue Commissioners Investigation of HSBC Offshore Accounts (12 Mar 2015)

Joe Costello: But what is in the public domain-----

Public Accounts Committee: Revenue Commissioners Investigation of HSBC Offshore Accounts (12 Mar 2015)

Joe Costello: It has been reported that part of the reason the Swiss authorities will not co-operate is because they perceive these data as having been stolen and therefore, they are entitled to not co-operate with anybody who is in possession of those data and have refused to co-operate.

Public Accounts Committee: Revenue Commissioners Investigation of HSBC Offshore Accounts (12 Mar 2015)

Joe Costello: Consequently, there is no sense in members writing to HSBC Geneva to ask its representatives to come over here and report back.

Public Accounts Committee: Revenue Commissioners Investigation of HSBC Offshore Accounts (12 Mar 2015)

Joe Costello: The position regarding Argentina seems to be completely different from the position in Ireland. While it seems to be existing offshore accounts here, in Argentina they were looking for repatriation of money that came directly from the HSBC branches in Argentina. This committee has been in communication with HSBC here in Dublin and it has indicated it is unable to help the committee. Is the...