Results 161-180 of 7,975 for speaker:Joe Higgins

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Sep 2015)

Joe Higgins: But is it academic if-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Sep 2015)

Joe Higgins: -----if the EU institutions forbid it and then you go along with that, is it not academic?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Sep 2015)

Joe Higgins: Thank you, Minister.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (9 Sep 2015)

Joe Higgins: Mr. Gray, your private consultancy company is called Indecon, correct?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (9 Sep 2015)

Joe Higgins: When was that founded?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (9 Sep 2015)

Joe Higgins: Okay. And you have done over the years, over the decades, work for the Irish Government and the Department of Finance.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (9 Sep 2015)

Joe Higgins: Would you ... how would you describe your company’s relationship with Government officials and the Department of Finance in this State, and if you would differentiate between that relationship before your time of appointment to the board of the Central Bank and the regulator, during your time, and then since you resigned?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (9 Sep 2015)

Joe Higgins: And did you also give advice or represent in some capacity, major banks?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (9 Sep 2015)

Joe Higgins: So do you feel there was ever a conflict of interest between your company's advising Bank of Ireland, say, and your role on the Central Bank?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (9 Sep 2015)

Joe Higgins: That's clear enough, Mr. Gray. I'll move on for time reasons.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (9 Sep 2015)

Joe Higgins: You say in your opening statement, page 4, written one:However, [this is in relation to the bank bailout etc.] I believe their decision to subsequently force Ireland to avoid imposing losses on bond holders andrequiring Irish taxpayers to then bear the cost was morally indefensible. It was one of the worst examples of a small state being forced to socialise losses (i.e. for the taxpayers to...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (9 Sep 2015)

Joe Higgins: Mr. Gray, you also said on page 9, "Regulatory systems did not cause the crisis, but did not prevent the practices which led to the crisis." Most fundamentally, what caused the crisis, in your view?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (9 Sep 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (9 Sep 2015)

Joe Higgins: Okay.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (9 Sep 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (9 Sep 2015)

Joe Higgins: Okay, and on that point - and this is my last point because I'm out of time, Mr. Gray - more fundamentally still, is it appropriate that in a democratic society private financial institutions, which hold enormous power over society, are able to profiteer and speculate at will, and blow up such a massive bubble that then creates, when it crashes, such havoc? Would you not say that that's a...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (9 Sep 2015)

Joe Higgins: But isn't that fundamental to how the capitalist financial markets operate?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (9 Sep 2015)

Joe Higgins: Mr. Browne, in that regard, is it the case that you gave extraordinary support to a handful of clients because from 2004 to 2005 customer lending went up by €10 billion in 2006, it went up €16 billion and in 2007, €17 billion? Now if that was in a period of restraint, how do you explain figures like this?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (9 Sep 2015)

Joe Higgins: The group.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (9 Sep 2015)

Joe Higgins: Do you accept that they are enormous figures?