Results 1,241-1,260 of 7,975 for speaker:Joe Higgins

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (27 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes ... it would just be easier to explain if the minute was there, Chair, but ... but, Mr. Grimes, it seems as if there was a debate between different attendees in relation to whether or not some financial institutions were solvent or insolvent. Would that be true?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (27 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: Mr. Grimes, if you say it wasn't a discussion on particular institutions that might be insolvent, half the minute, half the minute is given over to that. So it must have been a very important core of the meeting.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (27 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: Mr. Grimes, I correct myself. In fact, the entire minute that we have, which was written by a very high level official, is entirely on the question of insolvency. Can I quote Chair from this minute?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (27 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: It's ... the minute starts, the PwC reported on the Anglo loan book and gave details.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (27 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: Okay. Then you see paragraph 4, Mr. Grimes, there was a discussion of various forms of State intervention. Then the regulator said, there is no evidence to suggest that a particular institution which is named is insolvent on the going concern basis, it is simply unable to continue on the current basis from a liquidity point of view. He felt another institution was in a similar situation....

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (27 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: Mr. Grimes, that's not the question I asked you. Okay, sure. On the particular reference, I don't recall the interpretation you're putting on that, Deputy ... that the figures refer to the possible insolvency of those two institutions. There is some doubt about the reference to capital there, and whether the possible losses are before or after capital; and certainly my recollection, you...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (27 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: But, Mr ... Mr. Grimes, why did the very high-level official in the Department of Finance specifically refer to the Government needing a good idea of the potential loss exposures within these two institutions and then, what seems to me goes on to put a scenario, which was being mooted, that both of them were seriously insolvent?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (27 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes, Mr. Grimes, it was the purpose of the meeting undoubtedly but the entire minute is virtually taken up with the question of these two institutions. Now, can I put to you as well, because my time is running short, that we had evidence from senior bankers - from Allied Irish Banks and Bank of Ireland - that the Government on the night of the guarantee, night-early morning, proposed to put...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (27 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: What's your interpretation of that?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (27 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: Mr. Grimes, why would it scare the markets to reaffirm that all the banks were-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (27 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: Mr. Grimes, just going back to your previous answer, in regard ... reference to what senior bankers advised the Government. Surely it would be to reassure the markets that one would say that there was no problem with solvency. Why would it scare the markets, as you say?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (27 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: Mr. Grimes, keeping that ... the minute of that very high-level meeting, in which, I reiterate, the Taoiseach, the Minister for Finance, the most senior officials of all the institutions dealing with the finances of the State were in attendance, where the entire minute is given over to, yes, the crisis generally but the vast majority to problems of one and two financial institutions, in my...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (27 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: -----to allow those institutions to survive?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (27 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: Mr. Grimes, did the Financial Regulator have sufficient staff and resources, in your view, to carry out the regulator's responsibilities?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (27 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes, Mr. Grimes, evidence before the committee would say that there was a three-person team in the regulator's office responsible for Bank of Ireland and Anglo Irish Banks together and another three-person team responsible for Allied Irish Banks and IL and P. Considering that the auditors of those banks told us that, in one case, there was up to 200 staff working on the audit of Allied Irish...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (27 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: And did that feature at the Central Bank board in ... leading up to 2006, 2007?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (27 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: Mr. Grimes, our evidence book shows that there were generally at least six members of the financial regulatory board also on the board of the Central Bank ... of the 12, so half or more of the board of the Central Bank were also in the Financial Regulator. Are you telling me that, in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006, that it wasn't a major subject of discussion on the board, the amount of resources...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (27 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: Mr. Grimes, you attended two meetings on the night of the guarantee. Were you at the meeting where the, according to Governor Hurley's evidence, the Taoiseach went around the room to see if everybody there was in agreement with the guarantee. Were you at that portion of the meeting?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (27 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: Do you remember, or did it happen at the meeting you were at, that the Taoiseach went around the room and asked if there were any dissenters to the idea of a guarantee?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (27 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: Were there any dissenters?