Results 17,201-17,220 of 27,945 for speaker:Michael McGrath
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (29 Jul 2015)
Michael McGrath: So you experienced EBS as a traditional mortgage lender-----
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (29 Jul 2015)
Michael McGrath: -----as a mutual owned by members and then you were there as it morphed into something entirely different. To what do you attribute that? What are the main causes of that transformation of the model of a building society into, effectively then, a lender to, you know, commercial property and development in land?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (29 Jul 2015)
Michael McGrath: What are the main causes, in your view, and how much weight do you attach to the emergence of new entrants to the Irish banking sector and the role that they would have played? Just give us your ... because you've a unique insight, having been there really throughout. What were the main driving factors that led to that change?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (29 Jul 2015)
Michael McGrath: Okay.
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (29 Jul 2015)
Michael McGrath: Led by the Irish banks or led by the foreign banks who came in?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (29 Jul 2015)
Michael McGrath: And the fear was then "We'll be left behind, we have to join the game".
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (29 Jul 2015)
Michael McGrath: Thank you.
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)
Michael McGrath: Thank you, Chair. You're very welcome, Taoiseach and Minister. Taoiseach, in your witness statement, you state as evidence, as you put it, that Fine Gael opposed the main strands of Government economic policy, that Fine Gael voted against the budgets between 2002 and 2007. I have to put it to you Taoiseach: is it not the case that Fine Gael voted against those budgets, not because you were...
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)
Michael McGrath: You are critical in your statement, for example, of the growth in public spending of €23 billion between 2002 and 2007.
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)
Michael McGrath: So apart from benchmarking, which was, I think, in the order of €1.3 billion, specifically what other areas of public spending which were significant did Fine Gael oppose at that time?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)
Michael McGrath: PPARS.
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)
Michael McGrath: Well, in current spending, Taoiseach, in terms of social welfare-----
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)
Michael McGrath: -----education, health, that's €1 billion. But of the other €22 billion-----
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)
Michael McGrath: Can I put it to you Taoiseach that in opposition and as leaders of the Opposition, you have a great opportunity to set the political agenda. Now I have had a look back over Leaders' Questions, Private Members' motions from the Opposition and, for example, in 2005, 2006 and 2007, Fine Gael had 43 different Private Members' slots. You used them on a wide range of issues from accident and...
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)
Michael McGrath: June 2006.
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)
Michael McGrath: You said that in the approach to the 2007 general election that Fine Gael accepted the independent economic forecasts by the Department of Finance and the ESRI, for example, but can I put it to you Taoiseach that not only did Fine Gael accept the economic forecasts, but you also contested the election, competing on the same ground as the outgoing Government parties. For example, the promises...
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)
Michael McGrath: Finally ... I just want to raise the issue of how open to scrutiny was the Government decision-making process. For example, was the Oireachtas sufficiently aware of the stakeholders with whom Government Ministers might have consulted in the pre-legislative stage? How was this information made available? And, in your opinion, were Opposition parties adequately consulted by Government, in...
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)
Michael McGrath: We'll argue that point somewhere else, Taoiseach.
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)
Michael McGrath: Thank you.
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)
Michael McGrath: Yes. Thank you very much, Chair, and you're very welcome, Tánaiste and Deputy Rabbitte. Tánaiste, can I ask you, as the architect of the Labour Party's financial and economic policy leading into the 2007 general election, and if I can take you to the agreed budgetary platform with Fianna Gael, which will be put up on screen there now. And essentially, the Labour Party was...