Results 18,401-18,420 of 32,583 for speaker:Richard Bruton

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)

Richard Bruton: Well, clearly we have advocated that tax expenditure should be put under the same scrutiny as anything else and I think that has been a consistent part of the budgetary strategy we articulated in those years because I think it is true, as the Deputy said, that a huge commitment, that no one had known the size of it, to the property sector had built up and it was renewed each year and there...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)

Richard Bruton: Well, I think, you know, low rates of corporate tax, low rates of capital gains tax and low rates of ... and competitive rates of income tax are consistent with an enterprise strategy. The difficulty, I think, what happened in those years is that property had taken over ... speculation had taken over from, if you like, a genuine enterprise sector and you see the figures yourself. I mean,...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)

Richard Bruton: Well, my belief was that - and I articulated it on several occasions - that the planning system was the problem that was at fault there, not the capital gains tax regime ... that our planning system had simply ... was not fit for purpose and we were encouraging a structure, as you say, of people going to more and more remote areas, getting land rezoned, putting people on impossible treadmills...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)

Richard Bruton: Absolutely. Our whole ... our whole strategy was built around-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)

Richard Bruton: -----our whole strategy was built around rebooting the whole enterprise sector-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)

Richard Bruton: Absolutely, and, I mean, you're-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)

Richard Bruton: -----the proof of the pudding is in the way-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)

Richard Bruton: In the very same ... in the very same way as our Action Plan for Jobs in the last number of years has focused on all the barriers that prevent exporting and innovation and job creation. We looked to, you know, to make it easier to start a business, make it easier to get access to credit in areas of enterprise, you know, developing the innovation base of the economy, rebuild the skill base...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)

Richard Bruton: -----as you know had ... had been demolished in that period-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)

Richard Bruton: -----we needed to rebuild the manufacturing base and invest and-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)

Richard Bruton: But he-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)

Richard Bruton: No, not on the tax system. The changes that we sought to develop were the ones that you can see in practice in the Action Plan for Jobs, which is about making it easier to create employment, you know, creating the incentives to rebuild an enterprise sector, which had been demolished by the construction ... as I say, the growth in export-oriented job growth had fallen by 90% between that...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)

Richard Bruton: I met with them on occasion, and, obviously, we met with them when we scrutinised them in the Oireachtas finance committee. I couldn't give you a count, but, clearly, we were throughout this period, obviously, as legislators challenging them in committees. There were a number of instances, as you know, through that period where bank overcharging, proper, you know, weaknesses in supervision,...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)

Richard Bruton: That's right, yes.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)

Richard Bruton: Well, you know, obviously you can seek a briefing, and you will get a briefing, so there's no one would refuse you a briefing, but it would be a briefing as ... of an Opposition spokesperson. You didn't have privy to any, you know, assessments of this or that institution or anything like that. There would have been a commercial sensitivity.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)

Richard Bruton: No, I can't recall such a briefing.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)

Richard Bruton: I mean, I wouldn't have known anything that wasn't in the public domain. Obviously, I kept abreast with any issues that were arising in the public domain, and it was largely from public ... you know, it was from public sources that Opposition obtain the vast majority of their understanding. Obviously, that triggers parliamentary questions and you would, you know, get privy to additional...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)

Richard Bruton: No, it wouldn't have been a feature. I mean, I would occasionally have met the banks about some particular issue, but no, there was no, if you like, briefing in terms of this is the policy position that banks would like to see implemented or that. I mean, there would be occasional meetings around an issue. If I thought it warranted it, I'd look for a meeting about some specific issue. But...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)

Richard Bruton: No, there was ... no one sought me out. You know, but obviously after Northern Rock there was very much a heightened awareness-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (23 Jul 2015)

Richard Bruton: -----of financial vulnerabilities, and it was the subject of a lot of the parliamentary questions that I was submitting to Ministers at the time ... to the Minister for Finance at the time.