Results 16,061-16,080 of 26,043 for speaker:Kieran O'Donnell

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (16 Jul 2015)

Kieran O'Donnell: But can I make quick reference, Chairman, to page 95 of Vol. 3, which is effectively David Doyle's testimony to Mr. Wright, where he says: The pace of economic activity was strong 2001-2006 but the Department did not believe that this could continue. In 2005/6 the Minister was advised ... the country was depending on unsustainable tax revenues [and] that the economy had ... dramatically...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (16 Jul 2015)

Kieran O'Donnell: Were you aware in 2005 and 2006 that the economy was overheating because of the property sector?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (16 Jul 2015)

Kieran O'Donnell: Do you believe that those property taxes were sustainable?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (16 Jul 2015)

Kieran O'Donnell: So if those taxes were unsustainable, why then, throughout those years, Mr. Ahern, did we see rapid increases in Government spending? In '03, it went up by €2 billion; '04 by €2.7 billion; '05, €3.7 billion; '06, €5 billion; '07, €6 billion; right, every year. You also, in that period, in the 2003 budget, Mr. McCreevy announced that you would end all tax...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (16 Jul 2015)

Kieran O'Donnell: Why?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (16 Jul 2015)

Kieran O'Donnell: No, they're all interlinked questions.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (16 Jul 2015)

Kieran O'Donnell: I'm not talking-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (16 Jul 2015)

Kieran O'Donnell: I'm not talking about Mr. Cowen; I'm talking about Mr. McCreevy.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (16 Jul 2015)

Kieran O'Donnell: Mr. McCreevy announced in the 2003 budget that you were going to end all tax incentives at the end of '04. You then came along in the 2004 budget-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (16 Jul 2015)

Kieran O'Donnell: To the end of 2006.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (16 Jul 2015)

Kieran O'Donnell: So then, why did you come along and extend it again to '08?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (16 Jul 2015)

Kieran O'Donnell: The question, really, was, I suppose, specifically in the budget packages between the difference between what the Minister for Finance and the Department of Finance would've brought to Cabinet and what was actually spent, the highest difference was in the year 2007.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (16 Jul 2015)

Kieran O'Donnell: Was there any coincidence that was an election year?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (16 Jul 2015)

Kieran O'Donnell: You were Taoiseach at the time-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (16 Jul 2015)

Kieran O'Donnell: -----you'd have had to allow-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (16 Jul 2015)

Kieran O'Donnell: I've very little time left.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (16 Jul 2015)

Kieran O'Donnell: But the fact was, in 2006 you were told that the figure ... that the tax-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (16 Jul 2015)

Kieran O'Donnell: But 2006, right, and, effectively, all the ... capital gains tax had gone up by five times from ... from your time ... you came in 1997, stamp duty by three times, cyclical taxes by two times. So the question is: how can you stand over a situation, Mr. Ahern, where, effectively ... was it irresponsible, in the context of those level of unsustainable property taxes, to boost spending at such...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (16 Jul 2015)

Kieran O'Donnell: This was property taxes.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (16 Jul 2015)

Kieran O'Donnell: Can I ask you one last question, Mr. Ahern? Page 21 and page 22 - they're interrelated. You said, ''I would have done things differently'', and you said, ''I did make mistakes''. Specifically, what would you have ... what mistakes did you make, specifically? And specifically, what would you have done differently during your term as Taoiseach?