Results 1,381-1,400 of 7,975 for speaker:Joe Higgins

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (14 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: -----as we know, finished in disaster many of them. Therefore, is it a defence of any kind by Bank of Ireland to say, "We had to emulate these in a rush for profit"?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (14 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: A witness to the inquiry Mr. Burrows, David McWilliams, in a "Prime Time" interview in October 2003 said the following-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (14 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: -----said the following:The Irish housing market is a scam. It is an enormous financial swindle that could potentially confine an entire generation of young Irish workers to years of bad debt. Far from being a reflection of economic vitality and fundamental demand the housing bubble is, in the main, a vacuous financial confidence trick that has been foisted on us by an alliance of banks and...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (14 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: Just the very last question. It's noted in the core documents BOI - B1 - you don't need to go there, Mr. Burrows - page 73 to 93, just a general observation that the quality of management information reports and data available to board members may not have been as strong as they should have been. Do you think the directors were aware of this and do they accept deficiencies in management...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (14 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes. Mr. Dobey, I understood you to say that auditors, and you've said it a number of times, as in my words, have no questions to answer whatsoever in relation to responsibility for the bubble and crash in Irish society?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (14 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: Are you aware, Mr. Dobey, that there is a view, another view, that auditors failed to alert the system to serious risks that some people felt they should have seen because of your close insight into the banks? And that that alleged failure was all the more dramatic because it cost the Irish people €64 billion, seven years of austerity, and was caused by a bubble that gave rise to...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (14 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: No, no, I said-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (14 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: No, I'm putting this view to Mr. Dobey. I'm not saying what my view on it is.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (14 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: Okay. And what do you think of that view?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (14 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: Okay.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (14 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: Okay. Well, let's pursue it a little bit. Maybe Mr. O'Rourke, with yourself. In your opening written statement, or ... that you provided us, you said: "One of the key steps in an audit is to assess the risks arising from the business model and strategies followed." Right? An audit is to assess the risks arising from the business model and strategies followed. You then...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (14 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: Well, I think that many people would struggle to understand the complexities here of the reporting. I was trying to come up with an analogy, perhaps. It's ... if I just put this to you and ask you to comment. That you were asked to do a mechanical audit on a juggernaut. So the engine is okay, the wheels are fine, the suspension and body work okay. The truck is overloaded a bit but the...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (14 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: But, but why didn't they stop the truck before it went over the precipice then?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (14 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: And that's the question I would like to put to both of you, gentlemen, why it wasn't foreseeable. Now your organisation, for example, exists in the United States -----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (14 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: Correct?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (14 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: In Sweden -----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (14 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: In Norway.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (14 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: And in many other countries.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (14 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: But those three are modern, capitalist economies -----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (14 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: ----- where in the 80s and 90s very, very significant bank crises, property bubbles, followed by bank crashes and disaster for the economy happened. Why did your organisation not, and other organisations, indeed, not learn from those and understand it was eminently repeatable when the same circumstances were being created in Ireland?