Tag Archives: Banking Inquiry

90381131John Hurley, Governor of the Central Bank (2002-09) this morning

Meanwhile, at the banking inquiry:

” “The reports []rom the Nyberg Commission and Regling and Watson] suggested that there was a basis for taking some action by about the end of 2005.

In hindsight I agree with this view and I consider now that the Central Bank should have escalated and reinforced its warnings on risks. However, at the time the Bank considered that its approach in the 2005 Financial Stability Report was the correct one.”

Mr [John] Hurley said the Minister for Finance was never told about the crisis in the banking system because nobody knew it was coming. But he did say Brian Lenihan was told there was “a lot of heat in the property market, a lot of houses were being built and there was a lot of risk associated with that”.

The Governor said he had a direct responsibility to the Government and to the ECB. He said there is a domestic responsibility here that had to be exercised in a certain way. Mr Hurley said it was his position to make decisions in the interest of Europe as a whole but to always make Ireland’s position clear.

Seems legit.

Banking inquiry: ECB ‘told Ireland’ to stand with failing banks (Irish Times)

(Leah Farrell/Photocall ireland)

90377677Former chairman of AIB Dermot Gleeson, right, arriving at the Banking Inquiry this morning

Dermot Gleeson was chair of AIB from 2003 until 2009. (also a board member of Independent News and Media from 2000 until 2004).

The obvious.

He likes to states it.

From the Banking Inquiry:

Committee of inquiry into banking crisis

Banking inquiry: AIB ‘not aware’ of bank guarantee decision (Irish Times)

(Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland)

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The late Fianna Fáil finance minister Brian Lenihan with his aunt Mary O’Rourke on Miriam O’Callaghan’s RTE R1 show, Miriam Meets

You’ll recall how, in January, Central Bank governor Professor Patrick Honohan told the banking inquiry that the late Brian Lenihan, then finance minister, was overruled by a senior politician on the night of the bank guarantee in September 2008.

He said he understood Mr Lenihan thought that Irish Nationwide Building Society and Anglo Irish Bank should have been nationalised.

At the weekend, the Irish Times reported that former Taoiseach Brian Cowen said there was no question that he overruled Mr Lenihan.

Further to this, RTÉ reports:

Former Fianna Fáil minister Mary O’Rourke has confirmed the family of the late Brian Lenihan has requested input into the Oireachtas Banking Inquiry.”

“Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Ms O’Rourke said it is a fact of life that one of the main figures in the committee’s deliberations who cannot be with them is her nephew, the late Mr Lenihan.”

She says it has struck her forcibly “that those to whom he may have confided in on some matters should be given a chance to come before the committee to speak their mind.”

We wish to put the committee under notice that we will be following events and listening to what the witnesses will be saying internally about the late Brian Lenihan and we wish, if necessary, to render the recommendations of the committee more complete.”

She said she does not have papers or records belonging to Brian Lenihan; he did confide in her on many things, as he did to Conor Lenihan. “I do not have papers or records but I have a memory. I am lucky that it is a good memory.”

Family of Brian Lenihan requests input into Banking Inquiry (RTÉ)

Previously: “They Bought Into It”

90374415Dr Julien Mercille at the Banking Inquiry during the week

You may recall dreamboat Canadian-born UCD academic Dr Julien Mercille gave evidence at the Banking Inquiry last week.

Dr Mercille, author of The Political Economy and Media Coverage of the European Economic Crisis: The Case of Ireland, discussed media collusion in the boom and bust.

How did that go down?

Irish Independent?

“… Chasing red herrings and matters of no consequence remains a risk when competing politicians from different parties gather in conclave.”

“This week, they devoted some hours to considering the views of some obscure academic by the name of Julien Mercille. He has cast himself in the role of being some kind of messiah when it comes to the media, and its alleged involvement with spiralling house prices.”

“When it comes to the foibles of newspapers, in particular, Mr Mercille seems to be an expert on all those ”unknown unknowns” which challenge lesser mortals. Such is the way of self-appointed gurus. However, his arguments suffer from one overwhelming weakness – I cannot recall him predicting the crash either.”

Gerry O’Regan former Irish Independent editor

Irish Examiner?

“Finding out why was never going to be easy, but the inquiry got off to a pretty poor start on Wednesday. Before newspaper editors, including the Irish Examiner’s Tim Vaughan, the first witness was an academic chap, Julien Mercille.”

“Dr Mercille lectures in the department of geography in UCD and is the holder of a Phd on ‘the political economy’. He has written academic publications on matters such as the war on drugs, but he is not a media academic, and has never worked in the Irish media. He has penned a book based on the newspapers’ coverage of the property boom and bust.”

The thesis of his book is that the media is largely a tool of “the elites” and reflects their views at the cost of telling “the truth” or catering for “ordinary people”. It’s not clear whom exactly the elites are, but it’s safe to say Dr Mercille does not include among them highly-educated, well-paid and pensioned academics. Those souls are far more likely to be “ordinary people”, in search of “the truth”, whatever that is in a political context.”

“Dr Mercille’s thesis on the media derives as much from his political perspective as from any neutral examination of the function and performance of newspapers. His columns and media appearances suggest his politics chimes with that of the so-called far left, although Dr Mercille told the inquiry he would consider himself “progressive”, rather than left- or right-wing.”

“There’s nothing wrong with any of that. Diversity of opinion is a positive feature of public life. What is baffling is why an important Oireachtas inquiry, on a very tight schedule, found it useful to hear about the media from a man who could not be described as either a practitioner or an expert. Perhaps the politicians thought this passed for the ‘balance’ they habitually contend is lacking in coverage of their affairs.”

Michael Clifford, ‘Special Correspondent’ Irish Examiner

Sunday Independent:

Dr Mercille is a man of the hard left. In his hard-left worldview, capitalism is dominated by interconnected elites, who are in the minority, but because they wield all the power they are able to keep the majority poor and suppressed…..

Last year I was invited to debate the role of the media with Dr Mercille at a conference. In preparation for the event, I read his work carefully. His claims about the failings of the media during the bubble period are based on articles which appeared in this newspaper, the Irish Independent, the Irish Times, and episodes of RTE’s Prime Time. He claims that when this output is analysed it shows a highly unbalanced picture of cheerleading for the boom and only a tiny amount of time and space given to dissenters.

Interested in analysing his evidence, I contacted Dr Mercille and asked him to share the database he had collated. It turned out that he had not gathered the data in the normal way that any rigorous academic would do, so that the findings could be replicated, tested and built on. As such, it is not possible for anyone to know what was included in his study and – probably more importantly – what was not included.

The issue of what is not included in any study is important because it is the most common fault found in academic work.

As Dr Mercille’s evidence base is not available, it is impossible to assess the accuracy of his study, but there is reason to question it.”

Dan O’Brien, Sunday Independent.

Sunday Business Post:

A former Irish Times journalist,[Harry] Browne’s assertion that the media were “property porn” cheerleaders for choosing to feature property programmes and lifestyle features, distinctly smacked of poacher turned gamekeeper. The architectural nerd in me enjoys watching property, interior design and restoration programmes. I like watching cooking programmes too. Perhaps we should blame them for rising obesity levels? Or blame travel programmes for inspiring wanderlust?
Browne’s peer, UCD academic Dr Julien Mercille, was no more enlightened when he suggested that journalists could have predicted the property bubble and the crash itself. I anticipate a much more intriguing week this week, as the focus shifts to estate agents and their role in the bubble.

Tina Marie O’Neil, Sunday Business Post

Irish Times:

Geraldine Kennedy: “I listened to Dr. Mercille with great interest yesterday. Without doubt he was the finest conspiracy theorist I have heard in a long time. I was disappointed that his material was not evidence based. He gave one fact in his submission which was that there 40,000 articles written in The Irish Times about economic policy and the property boom and only 78 about affordable housing. That is absolutely wrong. It is very easy to press a button and get “property bubble” without taking into account all the other formulations of expressing that same phenomenon. Between the years 2008 and 2013 the country was banjaxed, it was bankrupt. Unless we want it to be Greece, one had to try to bring the country out of the mire. I noted yesterday that he seemed to support Argentina and in something else I read about him he supported—–

Deputy Joe Higgins: “Does Ms Kennedy dispute the figures and the percentages that he outlined in terms of the support for…”

Kennedy:
“No. I do not know but I would be surprised.”

Higgins: “But Ms Kennedy said that his contribution was not facts based and
now she says she does not know.”

Kennedy: “I do not know as I did not study that period because the terms of reference of the inquiry given to me were for 2002 to 2007. His figures were for 2008 to 2013 which is beyond my period as editor and I did not study that before coming in here. I will say that I believe, personally, and would probably have pursued the policy as editor, that there was very little option for Ireland unfortunately but to try to get its house back in order. It required great sacrifices by ordinary people.”

Higgins: “Yes. In other words, Ms Kennedy supports it. Did she support then the bailout of the financial markets rather than the people who were victims?”

Higgins: “How is that balanced journalism?”

Chairman: “I am going to move on.”

Former Irish Times editor Geraldine Kennedy at the banking inquiry.

Good times.

Update: Dr Mercille responds

Media grilled as Bank Inquiry bearpit uses hindsight to predict past (Irish Independent)

Michael Clifford: We all had the economic blinkers on (Irish Examiner)

Media Played Little Role In Inflating The Property Bubble (Dan O’Brien, Independent.ie)

Geraldine Kennedy, irish Times (banking Inquiry)

Previously: Mercille Live

For Those Who Shouted Stop, He Salutes You

blackBanking fraud specialist Professor William Black this morning

Meanwhile, at the banking inquiry…

Professor [William] Black said the Irish Bank guarantee had been “the worst possible decision that could have been made” and “an attempt to bail out the German banks and that was never going to happen”. It was “the most destructive own goal in history” he said.

He said the Government was essentially bullied into the guarantee on the bailout which was made on September 30 2008. “If the banks are lying to you and the regulators are utterly incapable” and the message is that “tomorrow the world ends unless you take this action, then you take that action”

Banking inquiry told guarantee decision was ‘insane’ (Tim O’Brien, Irish Times)

William Black?

(Leah Farrell/Photocall ireland)

Screen Shot 2015-01-15 at 12.14.01

Meanwhile…

Watch live here

Banking Inquiry: Patrick Honohan’s introductory statement (Irish Times)

Irish banking inquiry: Bailout ‘cost 40bn euros’ (BBC)

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Peter Nyberg  at the banking inquiry

[FG senator] Michael D’Arcy: “In the scale of misjudging risk internationally, how bad was the Irish banking sector’s misjudging risk?”

[Finnish Finance expert] Peter Nyberg: “The Irish institutions were pretty good at misjudging risk.” [laughs uncontrollably]

Ouch.

From last night’s RTÉ’s Six One and Nine News,

Watch here from 9.20 to 9.45.

Previously: And So It Begins…

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[Banking Inquiry Committee Chairman Ciaran Lynch TD]

“The banking inquiry has been told that, on legal advice, it will not be able to discuss the Cabinet meeting during which the bank guarantee was discussed due to Cabinet confidentiality. However, members were told by a senior counsel that documents should be available to them…”

Seems legit.

Bank inquiry cannot discuss bank guarantee Cabinet meeting (RTE)

 (Photocall Ireland)