Results 16,281-16,300 of 26,043 for speaker:Kieran O'Donnell

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Kieran O'Donnell: Did Commissioner Barroso ... was he pushing you to go into a bailout programme for Ireland?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Kieran O'Donnell: And did you as Taoiseach, in terms of reports, look for the ECB to continue to buy Irish Government bonds at that stage?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Kieran O'Donnell: Did they apply pressure in terms of saying they wouldn't continue to buy Irish Government bonds?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Kieran O'Donnell: Can I go back ... Did NAMA contribute to Ireland ending up in a bailout programme?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Kieran O'Donnell: The perspective I am coming from is, in the time I have is that ... NAMA originally was ... the plan was 30% haircut discount. It ended up, basically, being nearly 60%, nearly €19 billion extra of losses. You had to bring out a new, we'll say, bank plan on 30 September, just literally a month and a half before you applied for the bailout programme. In essence, is it fair comment to...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Kieran O'Donnell: ----the Irish State to the banking sector?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Kieran O'Donnell: But that's a long-term project.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Kieran O'Donnell: I'm talking about a short-term project in terms of the level of exposure the Europeans saw in terms of Ireland Inc as a small country to the banking sector.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Kieran O'Donnell: Two final questions. Firstly, was that not an endemic weakness in terms of the controls and the management of the economy, when you were both Minister for Finance and Taoiseach, that we allowed the banking sector to get exponentially the size it got relative to the Irish economy? And, secondly, Professor Honohan when he was in here, stated that he went on the "Morning Ireland" programme on...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Kieran O'Donnell: But wasn't there a risk of a run on the Irish banks at that time?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Kieran O'Donnell: Final question. What controls were in place, in your period as Minister for Finance and Taoiseach, to look at the level of the balance sheets of the Irish banks and the exposure of the balance sheets of the Irish banks, relative to the Irish economy?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (8 Jul 2015)

Kieran O'Donnell: Thank you.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (2 Jul 2015)

Kieran O'Donnell: Welcome, Mr. Cowen.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (2 Jul 2015)

Kieran O'Donnell: Do you believe that there was a property bubble after the period in which you came in as the Minister for Finance from '04 on?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (2 Jul 2015)

Kieran O'Donnell: And the ... in your statement, you say that you were concerned with "the potential vulnerabilities and the risks arising from the rapid escalation in property prices". You commissioned two reports around tax incentives: Goodbodys and Indecon. And your predecessor, Mr. McCreevy, who we had here yesterday, said that he was going to abolish them in '04 but he extended them in '06. Why were...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (2 Jul 2015)

Kieran O'Donnell: I'm not going to-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (2 Jul 2015)

Kieran O'Donnell: Your predecessor had extended it.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (2 Jul 2015)

Kieran O'Donnell: But it was ... but it was against the backdrop, Mr. Cowen, of an escalating property bubble in that period.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (2 Jul 2015)

Kieran O'Donnell: Yes, but the report wasn't ... the report wasn't ... effectively, when you came in as Minister for Finance, there was well over two years to go before the schemes were to conclude.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (2 Jul 2015)

Kieran O'Donnell: You could have just ... that gave people plenty advance warning. So why did you literally ... the reports weren't ready until the end of '05-----