Results 18,621-18,640 of 27,945 for speaker:Michael McGrath
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Michael McGrath: And was that one of a large number of options?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Michael McGrath: Yes, but we're not talking one option out of ten, we are talking one option of maybe three, four or five, a relatively small number of options.
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Michael McGrath: So, the impression that Mr. Trichet gave when we had the exchange with him was that the guarantee came as a big surprise to the ECB. But what you appear to be confirming is that the ECB was aware, right up to 29 September, that a bank guarantee was an option under consideration in terms of rescuing the Irish banks.
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Michael McGrath: Yes, but it was specifically referred to in the Irish context over the course of those days.
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Michael McGrath: In those days. Okay. And, just to pick up on the point that Senator MacSharry raised with you about the backdrop behind all of this - and it was a time of crisis - that no bank shall fail. Was that ever conveyed to Ireland in the sense of being conveyed to the Central Bank or you, as Governor, or the Government in an Irish context by the ECB?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Michael McGrath: So, at no time in the days leading up to 29 September - in the phone calls, teleconference calls, various communications - at no point was there any suggestion from the ECB, in an Irish context, that "You must stand behind your banks and not let them fail".
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Michael McGrath: Yes, but we're talking about Ireland. And you said that, yes, it would have emerged in the discussions. Can you be more clear on that, please?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Michael McGrath: Did the ECB make it clear that that is what was expected in the Irish case, that no bank would be allowed to fail at this critical juncture?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Michael McGrath: Can you be more specific?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Michael McGrath: Well, I suppose what I'm asking is was that message made clear in an Irish context? In the heat of the crisis, at the end of September 2008, was it made clear-----
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Michael McGrath: -----that Ireland must stand behind its banks?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Michael McGrath: Yes, Chairman, I find that very unsatisfactory.
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Michael McGrath: And I don't know if that's a section 33AK issue or not, but that's very general and broad, and the question is reasonable, in my opinion, and Mr. Trichet, in the course of our discussions, was very clear in his statement on that issue. The ECB never gave any message. "No message to Brian [Lenihan], no message to the Government of Ireland, but, if you read the papers at the time, all central...
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Michael McGrath: But that's-----
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Michael McGrath: The message was clear to Ireland and the message was clear to you. That message being-----
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Michael McGrath: -----"stand behind your banks; no bank should fail."
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Michael McGrath: Which you received?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Michael McGrath: Including in the context of the Irish banking crisis?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Michael McGrath: Okay. Over the course of that evening of the 29th, was any contact made with the ECB? Did you make any contact when you stepped out of the room where the meeting was taking place, for example?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (21 May 2015)
Michael McGrath: Not during that evening. And can you give an approximate time of when the full plenary meeting made the decision on the course of action? The Government incorporeal decision is subsequent, but the decision where the course of action was decided upon of a six-bank guarantee?