Results 1,101-1,120 of 7,975 for speaker:Joe Higgins

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: In page 5 of the written statement that you submitted in advance, the top of the page, you say: My recollection is that the relationship with some banks was somewhat strained ... Sending a full investigative team into Anglo elicited what I believed was a defensive response, and early in the investigation I required the full Anglo board to meet with me. Can you tell us about that?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: How did you respond to that situation? Did you go to the board?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: Did the situation change? Was there more co-operation then?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: Okay. Ms O'Dea, on page 7 of your opening statement, second paragraph ... last few sentences, you said: "In the [United States], many changes have been adopted through new legislation and the conversation there is not so much about more intrusive regulation but stronger enforcement action, stronger consumer protection and changes [in] the culture of [the] banks." In relation to all that has...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes. Do you think that there should be legislative changes to provide quite strict sanctions on financial institutions or those who run them, including jail sentences, when society's well-being, the well-being of the majority, can be put at risk by their actions?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: Lastly, Ms O'Dea, you were consumer director, that means that you, your role would have been to stand up for the ordinary person, so to speak, in the whole period of the bubble. Now looking back on it, whose interest do you think was served mainly by the financial institutions over that period of time? Was it the interest of profit-seeking private institutions? Did that predominate over...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: Do you think it's appropriate that profit seeking to that level should prejudice society and people's interests so much that that should be allowed?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: Ms O'Dea, you were supposed to be there to protect the consumer, the ordinary person. Between 1996 and 2006, the price of a home for an ordinary person increased by the equivalent of the average industrial wage each year for ten years. Now, the profiteering and the speculation that was responsible for that situation was driven by massive lending by the banks, including the banks taking...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: But Ms O'Dea what puzzles me is this: I mean, this was the subject of massive publicity, conversation and controversy, just the simple price of a home for an ordinary person, we are not talking about people buying to let or landlords or speculators or whatsoever. And the fact that the regulatory system didn't go into a mode of alarm and opposition to this and try and stop it, why did that...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: Ms O'Dea, with respect-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: -----young people needed homes, starting families etc. They were put into a position of blackmail by common consent, that's not a leading question-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: It isn't a leading question. If you wanted a home, the people who had the homes sold them to you at this ... at these incredible conditions and prices, etc.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: Leave the soft landing out of it, just what was happening and what was going to happen to young people, did that not set alarm bells ringing?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: Could I refer to Vol. 1, page 21, please, of the evidence?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: Okay. It'll come up on the screen there, Mr. Roux.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: And I refer to the last paragraph.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: It states: [The International Monetary Fund] Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes Review was discussed [and] It was anticipated that Ireland would be deemed materially non-compliant in four areas i.e. independence, accountability and resourcing; supervisory techniques and tools; transactions with related parties; and abuse of financial services. That was in 2013, only it was...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: You mean removed by the Government is it-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Jun 2015)

Joe Higgins: -----from your position?