Results 19,601-19,620 of 27,945 for speaker:Michael McGrath
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (26 Mar 2015)
Michael McGrath: I welcome Mr. Doorly and Mr. O'Regan and thank them for coming. I will start with Mr. Doorly and will ask him to clarify the number of newspaper titles that INM had in Ireland during the years in question.
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (26 Mar 2015)
Michael McGrath: Can Mr. Doorly remind us, with regard to commercial and residential property, what supplements there were with the daily Irish Independentand the Sunday Independent, and on what days of the week?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (26 Mar 2015)
Michael McGrath: Was that a supplement?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (26 Mar 2015)
Michael McGrath: I will take Mr. Doorly through some of the numbers on the advertising revenue that the company benefited from that he provided in his opening remarks. I put it to him that during the period in question there certainly was growing dependence on advertising revenue, which increased from 60% of the company's revenue base to 66%. As such, the ratio of advertising revenue to circulation revenue...
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (26 Mar 2015)
Michael McGrath: Was it a reflection of the economy and the buoyancy of the property market that the property-related element of the company's advertising revenue increased from 11% to 17% during the five years in question?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (26 Mar 2015)
Michael McGrath: Mr. Doorly states as well that revenue from the property advertising stream represented on average just over 9% of overall income for the years concerned. At the peak, in 2006 and 2007, to what did that rise?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (26 Mar 2015)
Michael McGrath: Is Mr. Doorly saying that at its peak the property-related advertising stream of revenue was approximately 11% for the Irish Independentand the Sunday Independent?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (26 Mar 2015)
Michael McGrath: Would there have been a significant variation between the daily newspaper and the Sunday newspaper in terms of dependence on property-related advertising?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (26 Mar 2015)
Michael McGrath: Commercially, would the Irish Independenthave had a greater dependence on such revenue?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (26 Mar 2015)
Michael McGrath: Presumably, there would be internal management accounts measuring the performance of each newspaper.
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (26 Mar 2015)
Michael McGrath: Does Mr. O'Regan believe that national newspapers can be influential and while they may not eventually make up the readers' minds, they can be influenced by national newspapers?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (26 Mar 2015)
Michael McGrath: If the balance of views being given in a national newspaper, albeit reflective of the submissions being made to Mr. O'Regan and the material being submitted, is on one side of an argument rather the other, that can influence public opinion. Mr. O'Regan stated at the outset that there was no conscious effort on his part or on the part of the newspaper to fuel what has been described as the...
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (26 Mar 2015)
Michael McGrath: Does Mr. O'Regan accept, if the predominance of views on his newspapers were favourable towards the property market, were not issuing warnings and were, in effect, encouraging readers to participate in the property market, that would have had an influence on readers' behaviours?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (26 Mar 2015)
Michael McGrath: When Mr. O'Regan published contrarian or alternative views compared to the mainstream views at the time, would he ever have had messages or signals from politicians or political sources that such publications were unwelcome or unhelpful? Was that message ever conveyed to Mr. O'Regan, directly or indirectly, from those involved in politics?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (26 Mar 2015)
Michael McGrath: Was a story ever suppressed because of commercial considerations or because it did not fit in with any overall narrative that the newspaper group was trying to convey in terms of the economy and the property market?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (26 Mar 2015)
Michael McGrath: Was it ever considered?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (26 Mar 2015)
Michael McGrath: At the time, was there a written policy within the company dealing with the issue of staff accepting gifts from banks, property developers and auctioneers, and also in terms of hospitality? Was there a company policy?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (26 Mar 2015)
Michael McGrath: Was there ever an incident in which Mr. O'Regan or a member of staff was offered, whether it was accepted or not, a gift or hospitality from an organisation in the property sector which made him uncomfortable?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (26 Mar 2015)
Michael McGrath: Was anyone ever offered a loan by a financial institution at a preferential interest rate, as far as Mr. O'Regan is aware?
- Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (26 Mar 2015)
Michael McGrath: I have a final question for Mr. Doorly. Does he believe, overall, that there was an unhealthy dependance on revenue from the property sector during the boom years in question?