Results 181-200 of 1,974 for speaker:Arthur Spring

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: Nitrates Action Programme Implementation (7 May 2015)

Arthur Spring: 199. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government in view of the abolition of milk quotas, if he will consider extending the current derogation under the Nitrates Directive to 300 kilograms per hectare per year, targeted specifically at smaller farms with the ambition to expand. [17963/15]

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of the Banking Sector in Ireland (Resumed): Ulster Bank (29 Apr 2015)

Arthur Spring: I am trying to place a construct on my thesis on family homes and the way in which banks are trying to restructure their balance sheets. What would be the valuation of Ulster Bank if it were to obtain a market capitalisation?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of the Banking Sector in Ireland (Resumed): Ulster Bank (29 Apr 2015)

Arthur Spring: A figure is known.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of the Banking Sector in Ireland (Resumed): Ulster Bank (29 Apr 2015)

Arthur Spring: If RBS is looking at Ulster Bank as being part of its overall portfolio, it will have a value attributed to it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of the Banking Sector in Ireland (Resumed): Ulster Bank (29 Apr 2015)

Arthur Spring: It must place a value on the bank.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of the Banking Sector in Ireland (Resumed): Ulster Bank (29 Apr 2015)

Arthur Spring: I will make the question a little easier for Mr. Brown. Has the value of Ulster Bank increased or decreased over the five years since 2010?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of the Banking Sector in Ireland (Resumed): Ulster Bank (29 Apr 2015)

Arthur Spring: Has the bank's balance sheet repaired itself over the past five years?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of the Banking Sector in Ireland (Resumed): Ulster Bank (29 Apr 2015)

Arthur Spring: In that case, its value will have increased.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of the Banking Sector in Ireland (Resumed): Ulster Bank (29 Apr 2015)

Arthur Spring: While that has obviously been factor, the mortgage market is improving and the value of the assets, namely, the loans backed by the security on the properties in question, has increased in the past five years. Ultimately, therefore, with the loans now worth more, Ulster Bank must be worth more.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of the Banking Sector in Ireland (Resumed): Ulster Bank (29 Apr 2015)

Arthur Spring: I acknowledge that but there has been an improvement in the property market.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of the Banking Sector in Ireland (Resumed): Ulster Bank (29 Apr 2015)

Arthur Spring: It is improving, however.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of the Banking Sector in Ireland (Resumed): Ulster Bank (29 Apr 2015)

Arthur Spring: What percentage of the bank's lending facility is being given over to site finance for developers and working capital for developers and builders to build new homes?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of the Banking Sector in Ireland (Resumed): Ulster Bank (29 Apr 2015)

Arthur Spring: How significant is the bank's construction lending relative to ten years ago?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of the Banking Sector in Ireland (Resumed): Ulster Bank (29 Apr 2015)

Arthur Spring: How much lower?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of the Banking Sector in Ireland (Resumed): Ulster Bank (29 Apr 2015)

Arthur Spring: Can Mr. Brown express the figure as a percentage? Is it 50% or 20% lower than it was ten years ago?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of the Banking Sector in Ireland (Resumed): Ulster Bank (29 Apr 2015)

Arthur Spring: Lending for site finance is, therefore, approximately 10% of what it was previously.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of the Banking Sector in Ireland (Resumed): Ulster Bank (29 Apr 2015)

Arthur Spring: Site finance and working capital to build new homes, etc., stands at approximately 10% of the level at which it stood ten years ago.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of the Banking Sector in Ireland (Resumed): Ulster Bank (29 Apr 2015)

Arthur Spring: This is part of the problem we are experiencing the housing market. Approximately 80,000 homes were being built annually a decade ago. If Ulster Bank and all the other financial institutions are providing only 10% of the construction finance they were providing at that time, only 8,000 houses will be built annually. This figure is nowhere near what the market needs. Ultimately, if one is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of the Banking Sector in Ireland (Resumed): Ulster Bank (29 Apr 2015)

Arthur Spring: That is the bank’s fault, not the fault of the homeowners of Ireland.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of the Banking Sector in Ireland (Resumed): Ulster Bank (29 Apr 2015)

Arthur Spring: Is it not a form of market manipulation when Ulster Bank is down to 10% of previous lending to this sector and there is a restriction on the amount of money available to the banking system for people to buy sites and build homes?