Results 18,421-18,440 of 32,583 for speaker:Richard Bruton

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

Richard Bruton: So, you know, there was a heightened awareness of this issue.

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

Richard Bruton: No, I think we never had those resources and I do recall going way back, I think it was an academic in Trinity, Jonathan Westrup, I think was his name, who, you know, did pose the question: who guards the guardians, so to speak? If the Oireachtas is, you know, the body that, ultimately, has a role, how well-equipped is it to do that task? And I think it wasn't well-equipped, neither in...

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

Richard Bruton: Yes, I think ... well first of all, I think the biggest objection I had was that we hadn't stress tested the actual powers, the capabilities, the method of overseeing the financial institutions. There was a bigger debate about whether it should be ... the regulator should be independent, stand alone, or be part of the Central Bank, and that dominated, if you like ... that institutional...

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

Richard Bruton: Well, I had a lot ... I mean, the period after that was a sustained issue of ... a period of calling into question as to whether they were up to scratch and we saw a period when, you know, a number of practices were revealed - of overcharging and so on in the banks - and it always appeared to me that the regulatory system arrived breathless and late, as they say, rather ... and they responded...

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

Richard Bruton: Yes, it's a valid point. I suppose we didn't have a detailed, if you like, alternative scrutiny mechanism for overseeing banks and our policy at the time, in 2002, was we needed a robust evaluation of how fit for purpose it was. So, that was a question of doing a detailed assessment. It wasn't a sort of a policy change. Personally, I'm not sure that the structures were at the source of...

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

Richard Bruton: Well, I obviously took the issue up immediately with the Minister for Finance and I questioned the Minister for Finance - and I have it there somewhere - you know, in detail about whether, you know, a failure of a bank, were we in a position to deal with that? How confident was he that there were no such vulnerabilities in our system? Had we the proper powers and capabilities in place? So,...

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

Richard Bruton: No. I mean, obviously we didn't have access to the financial institutions and I think, as Senator Susan O'Keeffe said, we probably didn't have the forensic ... well, perhaps Deputy O'Donnell did, but we didn't generally have the forensic capabilities of investigating, even if we had them, but we didn't have them.

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

Richard Bruton: No, I don't think I had any meetings at which there was lobbying for some change in the regulatory structure or the banking regulation from the banking system. You know, I developed most of my policy from talking to independent economists, academics. You know, that was really the source, you know, to provide some outside insight into this system and that's where, you know, a lot of our...

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

Richard Bruton: No. I mean, I played no such role in opposition. I mean, I was not part of any promotion of the IFSC - good, bad or indifferent. I mean, I think, to be fair though, the regulatory failures were not in respect of the international financial institutions. By and large, the regulatory failures were, you know ... bog standard domestic banks was the problem that prevailed. I think, you know,...

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

Richard Bruton: Well, I think our belief was ... you know, we weren't economic forecasters so we accepted Finance and ESRI forecasts that prevailed at the time but it was certainly our view that in order to realise that sort of growth, you had to retool your economy very considerably and a lot of our emphasis was: how do you address the vulnerabilities that we had seen build up in the economy? So our focus...

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

Richard Bruton: -----addressing our competitiveness", and that was the focus of our approach.

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

Richard Bruton: Yes, but that would be around, like, finance Bills-----

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

Richard Bruton: -----you know, individual measures, not around-----

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

Richard Bruton: -----you know, global economic, sort of, forecasting.

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

Richard Bruton: No, I didn't. I mean, I suppose what we diagnosed was that what needed to be done was to rebuild our export base, to, you know, look afresh at the way spending was being undertaken. It wasn't a question of spending cuts as a lot of people talk. I mean, the economy was growing in those years. It could afford economic ... a growth in public spending programmes. The problem was that...

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

Richard Bruton: -----delivering-----

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

Richard Bruton: No, I mean, we would have accepted Finance publications as ... as what represented their view. We didn't, you know, believe that there was some alternative view in the Department of Finance that wasn't in their published reports. So-----

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

Richard Bruton: -----you know, we didn't go looking for officials to second-guess their public reports. I mean, I suspect if we had, we would have been told that, you know, "Our advice is for the Minister, it's not for the Opposition and this is the published material that provides, you know, our considered view of where the economy is going."

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

Richard Bruton: So, you know, I don't think such ... you know, such briefings weren't being made available. Effectively, counter briefings to what Government was saying was its view of the world wasn't available.

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

Richard Bruton: Well, I think, you know, going right back to 2002, you know, we were very critical of the regulatory system that was being put in place, we did not think it was fit for purpose ... and that was, sadly, proven right over the subsequent years. So we were right to call at that time for a detailed review and when it came back through the subsequent years, when enforcement powers came back for...