Results 1,421-1,440 of 7,975 for speaker:Joe Higgins

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (13 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: Now, can I ask you, Mr. Davitt, if during the 2000s, when house prices for first-time buyers especially, were shooting up by anybody's standard, and where research shows that between 1996 and 2006, the price of an ordinary home went up each year by the equivalent of the average industrial wage, which was a huge figure, and a huge imposition on the people who were now suffering the...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (13 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: Do you think ... was that a failure by the institute or not, that it didn't intervene when it might seem obvious to many people that things were becoming completely unsustainable in the sense that first-time buyers being forced to go for 35 or even 40 year mortgages at unsustainable levels? Should your institute have intervened?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (13 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: Mr. Fitzpatrick, Mr. Cullen in his opening statement to the inquiry, as I see it, sums up the role of the audit to check about the financial position, financial performance and cash flows of an entity that is useful to a wide range of users in making economic decisions and in that sense, that it's tight and limited according to regulations and law. Would that be a fair representation of...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (13 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: There has been a lot of comment on the role of auditors in relation to the period of bubble and bust. And just to try and understand, we get people watching us from the stand and indeed, myself. Let me just put this short analogy to you and ask you if you think it's fair or not. So a patient comes to a GP for a heart check and a blood pressure check. Doctor checks the two ... "You're...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (13 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: Well, let's tease it out a little bit further. When you were examining Ulster Bank, the Governor of the Central Bank, currently Patrick Honohan, said in the Economic and Social Review summer 2009:A very simple warning sign used by most regulators to identify a bank exposed to increased risk is rapid balance sheet growth. An annual real growth rate of 20% is often taken as the trigger. ...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (13 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: But there's the rub Mr. Fitzpatrick. In a sense of course the information was there, but the danger of what that information indicated ... as the Governor hints, and for example in evidence Dr. Alan Ahearne referred to a study he did in 2005 of, I think it's 44 housing boom and slumps, showing how over extension of credit, etc., finishes up in disaster. Should those figures not have sent...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (13 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: But were you or not perhaps looking at all the waves as they were coming towards the shore one by one, concentrated on that and you didn't see the tsunami that was being generated further out that eventually overwhelmed the system?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (13 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: So, Mr. Cullen-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (13 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: Sorry?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (13 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: Nearly three, Chair.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (13 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: Mr. Cullen, various sectors have come in here and said they accepted certain responsibility for the horrific crisis that emerged from the bubble. Does the auditing profession take any responsibility for what happened, the bubble and the bust?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (13 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: Mr. Fitzpatrick, can you comment on the maintenance and availability of concise and accurate management information on a group-wide basis by Ulster Bank Ireland Limited? Were you satisfied, for example, that you had access to accurate management information which allowed you to discern the full financial position of the group at all times?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (13 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: Were there any possible issues relating to the generation of reports used to inform the financial statements, for example, the level of use of manual rather than system-generated spreadsheets for the preparation of reports, the completeness of reports, if drawn from across the groups, and the possibility of imprecise figures as a result?

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): European Council Meetings (12 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: 18. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on meetings and discussions he had at the European Council meeting in December 2014; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3365/15]

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): European Council Meetings (12 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: 43. To ask the Taoiseach if he has met the Prime Minister of Greece, Mr Alexis Tsipras; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8838/15]

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): European Council Meetings (12 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: 44. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on his discussions with the President of the European Central Bank, Mr. Mario Draghi; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8839/15]

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): European Council Meetings (12 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: 69. To ask the Taoiseach if the human rights situation in Egypt was discussed at any of the European Council meetings since December 2014; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15230/15]

An Bille um an gCeathrú Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht 2014: An Dara Céim [Comhaltaí Príobháideacha] - Thirty-fourth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2014: Second Stage [Private Members] (8 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: The two Ministers are talking instead of listening to the arguments. That is very ignorant.

An Bille um an gCeathrú Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht 2014: An Dara Céim [Comhaltaí Príobháideacha] - Thirty-fourth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2014: Second Stage [Private Members] (8 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: There are so few people in the Chamber. Now that the Labour Party has deigned to come in, the Minister of State, Deputy Ó Ríordáin, might listen.

An Bille um an gCeathrú Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht 2014: An Dara Céim [Comhaltaí Príobháideacha] - Thirty-fourth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2014: Second Stage [Private Members] (8 May 2015)

Joe Higgins: Unfortunately, the contribution by the Minister for Health was disingenuous in the extreme. He contradicted himself in virtually every second sentence. He said:I believe that this matter should be dealt with in the 32nd Dáil, when parties have a fresh mandate from the people for their policies. I do not want it to be an election or pre-election issue. It needs to be dealt with...