Results 1,041-1,060 of 7,975 for speaker:Joe Higgins
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (11 Jun 2015)
Joe Higgins: Yes. Mr. O'Reilly, what role did the regulator undertake in analysing the financial accounts of the banks?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (11 Jun 2015)
Joe Higgins: What was the nature of that information?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (11 Jun 2015)
Joe Higgins: Was the concentration of credit on ... in property, and was the extent of individual customers' borrowing included?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (11 Jun 2015)
Joe Higgins: The chief executive of NAMA, Brendan McDonagh, in evidence, said that they took over 772 debtors' loans, which totalled €74 billion, and within that, 12 of those had over €1 billion each, and that 12 had €22.2 billion between them. A further 133 borrowers took between €100 million and €999 million, each having a total of €16 billion. Why didn't that...
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (11 Jun 2015)
Joe Higgins: But, pardon me, Mr. O'Reilly, would a child regulator not see the direction and the danger in which this was tending? This ... this was ... we haven't time to give the figures again, but if we had the figures during the three or four years of your tenure, and the three ... two or three years after, the ... the lending, as a witness here, Bill Black, said, was growing like crazy.
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (11 Jun 2015)
Joe Higgins: How could it not be-----
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (11 Jun 2015)
Joe Higgins: And, Mr. O'Reilly, you did ... in page 3 of your written statement to us you mentioned the principle-based regime, and financial institutions committing fully to a culture of integrity, and that the main method of asserting influence over the banks was moral suasion. And Senator O'Keeffe raised and pressed you on this already. But, in view of the shocking banking scandals, whereas ......
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (11 Jun 2015)
Joe Higgins: Mr. O'Reilly, their profits were increasing hand over fist during the time you were there and after.
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (11 Jun 2015)
Joe Higgins: They were after maximisation of profits. So that ... what-----
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (11 Jun 2015)
Joe Higgins: Yes, but-----
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (11 Jun 2015)
Joe Higgins: And, Mr. O'Reilly, as an experienced banker, you saw, as well, the Nordic collapse in the '80s and '90s, for example, and many other banking collapses, as a result of excessive property lending. Was the problem that you were gentleman regulators, really, depending on the banks to observe the ... the Marquis of Queensberry rules, but you weren't dealing with gentleman bankers, you were...
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (11 Jun 2015)
Joe Higgins: Would that be a fair analogy, perhaps?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (11 Jun 2015)
Joe Higgins: Would the light-touch regulation be explained by another theory that has been raised, and I'll put it to you, Mr. O'Reilly, that following the massive deregulation of the international financial industry, starting with the Thatcher-Reagan period in the 80s, and then, according to a witness here, Bill Black, massively intensified by the Clinton regime, that the scale of the financial industry...
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (11 Jun 2015)
Joe Higgins: Okay, and can I further develop this point a little bit, Mr. O'Reilly? In his book, called Ship of Fools, the ... I think he is now deputy editor of The Irish Times, Fintan O'Toole, quoted the Industrial Development Authority, the IDA, referring to a flexible and business focused tax and regulatory system in Ireland, and then quotes directly the IDA as follows: In 1998, the Regulator...
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (11 Jun 2015)
Joe Higgins: Mr. O'Reilly this is the premier agency bringing big business, finance etc. into the State. They say that as a matter of policy you had disapplied the regulatory system.
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (11 Jun 2015)
Joe Higgins: You were conflicted by that were you?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (11 Jun 2015)
Joe Higgins: Mr. O'Reilly, when I was ... in relation to that and the follow on and the consequence of that, when I was researching for your appearance today, I wanted to find out that ship of fools referred to and Wikipediatells me that it's an allegory originating with Plato. It depicts a vessel without a pilot, populated by human inhabitants who are, among other things, oblivious and seemingly...
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (11 Jun 2015)
Joe Higgins: Right and last point, briefly, Mr. O'Reilly-----
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (11 Jun 2015)
Joe Higgins: Six members of your board were also on the Central Bank board, isn't that correct?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (11 Jun 2015)
Joe Higgins: And they had a majority in fact.