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CENTRAL BANK GOVERNOR Patrick Honohan got rather animated today as he answered questions at the Oireachtas banking inquiry.
Honohan was appearing before the committee to clarify comments he made in January.
“What I said was not clear – I interrupted myself, as I do all the time,” Honohan said of his previous appearance, noting he didn’t always finish sentences and used colloquialisms.
Honohan confirmed that the former secretary general of the Department of Finance, David Doyle, contacted him about his initial appearance.
The governor clarified that he had not spoken to Doyle about a note he had sent to the Department of Finance’s former assistant secretary general, Kevin Cardiff, in September 2008 saying Anglo would need €8.5 billion.
Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty questioned Honohan on this issue several times until he said the TD’s line of questioning could put him in a position where “I look like I don’t know anything”.
Honohan banged the table, leading Doherty to state: “I’m sorry we appear to be at loggerheads.”
At this point, committee chair Ciaran Lynch stepped in, asking: “Was there a discussion with Mr Doyle or Mr Cardiff?”
Honohan said he did not talk about the note with Doyle, but stated: “There was possibly a discussion with Mr Cardiff.” However, he stressed that if a discussion took place it was not significant as it would have been two years after the fact.
Bank guarantee
Earlier Honohan told the inquiry it is important to keep the impact of bank guarantee “in perspective”.
The decisions on the night of the guarantee did of course have consequences for Ireland. But there has been a tendency to overstate the extent of the impact of that night’s decisions on the subsequent welfare of the nation.
Honohan said “at least 80-90% of the overall hardship that followed the bursting of the bubble, was – albeit unbeknownst to the decision-makers that night – already inescapably embedded in the situation”.
“The damage had been made unavoidable by the unrestrained credit and property boom.
The fiscal austerity measures that have had to be taken are not just due to the €40 billion or so in additional net debt that can be linked to the guarantee, but also reflect the far larger impact of the ending of the construction boom on the government’s tax revenue and spending needs.
Honohan said the need for “austerity measures” such as “tax increases and expenditure reductions that have proved necessary since, could have been reduced somewhat, but not all that much, by anything done at the end of September 2008″.
The governor said he remained of the view that both Anglo and Irish Nationwide should have been nationalised “by the end of that week”, adding that leaving them in the hands of management was “very risky”.
Hunter vs hunted
Joe Higgins asked if Honohan understands why people might be annoyed with his view that the guarantee didn’t cause most of the country’s financial hardship.
Honohan people shouldn’t be “shocked” with his view as “other things were wrong in society”, noting the pain “would have been severe” with or without the guarantee.
This led Higgins to use an African proverb:
At this stage, Lynch just wanted to wrap things up – replying in jest:
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He doesn’t know, nobody knows, nothing happened, what bank crisis? Stop asking me questions, this is all a dream.
meanwhile people go to prison for not paying fines..
Best comment I’ve read this week!!
Dermot people like you make me sick, shouting angry questions with zero interest in the facts.
He doesn’t know because he wasn’t there. He wasn’t in the room when the decisions were made. He was a university lecturer and doing economics research. He can’t just make things up so it looks like he knows everything. He isn’t Pearse doherty.
If you want to have a witch trial then go right ahead. But nothing useful will come out of it.
But it’s ok to have trial by media on other matters is it?
Fg labour traitors have a look at ure lies._.https://youtu.be/27UL3tZW1bk
Spot on Verge – Patrick Honohan is actually one of the good guys and if he was at the helm as regulator at the time instead of Paddy Neary this whole debacle would probably never have happened in the first place.
You wouldn’t think it though looking at the way he gets lambasted on here by commenters who’s power of thought seems incapable of extending beyond the “banker = w*nker” mantra….
You just set up that anonymous Twitter account just to reply to me didn’t you verge harry….didn’t you..
Glad you accept you are wrong.
Verge, interesting point, will Patricl Neary attend he was in the thick of it at the time as banking regulator
The most significant news this week is the trillion odd quantitative easing announces by the Ecb. Would be good to have an article on who benefits from that….my guess free dosh for the financial industry and no help to joe soap. The bankers were licking their lips with that announcement from Dragi
It seems Mr. Honahan’s memory is slipping – should he be sent for medical assessment ?
QE does indeed tend to disproportionately benefit the wealthy, but its notable that the EU (and the Germans in particular) have been extremely reluctant to introduce any form of QE, so I don’t think there’s any conspiracy here.
I agree about Paddy Neary – he should certainly appear at the banking enquiry, as the one person who is probably more culpable than any other single individual for the banking debacle.
Greg, as far as I know Neary will be appearing at the inquiry. However, he will claim he didn’t know, wasn’t told by those below him and, or, can’t remember!
Unfortunately I think your assessment is probably spot on.
One trillion euro is not QE? Are you Avina Laff?
I didn’t say they hadn’t done it, I said they were reluctant to do it. Is it really that hard to understand?
If they had done it at that time the benefits would have been more equitably shared.
Now, printing one trillion Euro is a balance sheet mop up.
Fraudulent conversion at its best.
Haha…accept I’m wrong?
Are you taking advantage of the crystal meth loophole?
That’s the boy Patrick, tell the heuurs nothing.
The banking crisis has nothing to do with the Irish peasantry, they pick up the bill and that’s it.
Smoke and mirrors. No accountability and no arrests yet people get locked up for TV licences and the such. It really does stink of bullshit
Honohan was clearly rattled, after meeting an Economic Rockstar.
Randy ,Best comment ,and no one was responsible,,it will go on and on ,and the ordinary people will pay for this shite as well as the economic ruin of the country for many years
Wow, its just like in the Dail. Sinn Fein asking hard questions to the people in power and getting a load of waffle and misdirection instead of answers.
Well if they put as much effort into questioning Honohan as Gerry they might get some answers!!!
Unless the questions are about Rape and peadophilia , Then SInn Fein run for the hills and pull down all shutter
Wow it’s just like the Dail, Sinn fein grandstanding and acting like idiots and their low information supporters eating it up.
Honahan wasn’t the central bank governor when the decisions were taken. He had a much more interesting and fulfilling job doing economic research and lecturing. Then out of sense of public duty he takes a tough job when they decide they needed someone qualified and people want to use him as a pinata for decisions he didn’t make
verge dont baffle them with facts and sense they don’t like that
Thought you were goung to say facts and figures…
They definitely dont like figures! Basic maths is tricky enough for them!
say sums the don’t understand the word maths :D
Julian, we need to hear from patrick neary and others who were there. Neary will know the most about this I imagine, he was after all the banking regulator at the time.
Julian….you’ve just been trolled mate.
There’s three goats who owe the journal a debt of gratitude.
Pearse Doherty is a man who was put in charge of Sinn Fein’s economic policy as he was the only one in the party who could still remember his 12 times multiplication tables from school.
Sammy…you’re hardly one to correct someone about figures….after all you think that “Over 50,000 people died from alcohol related deaths in 2014.”
http://www.thejournal.ie/ireland-plain-packs-america-1982391-Mar2015/
And the corruption cover up continues , by The Central Bank , The Bankers , The then and now, Irish Government and The European Union itself .
Extraordinary times which we are living
in Folks !!!
Al Ca. We’ve already had this discussion and you were found to be just pulling numbers out of thin air….much life SF’s budget proposal actually.
is doherty not a college dropout?
Now, now Sammy….people can click on the link and see I was pulling figures from the other link that you provided….lol.
But that’s not surprising as you believe “The Irish Independent is the closest thing to an unbiased paper we have”……lol.
http://www.thejournal.ie/independent-newspaper-cover-of-the-year-1985319-Mar2015/ …lol …let me guess your favourite unbiased TV channel is unbiased Fox News….lol.
Pat think he tried the economics, politics and law course for the first year but dropped out because he found it too difficult.
So Sammy, remind us, how many died from alcohol related issues in Ireland last year? #getSammyOut
My god! Everyone else is at fault. Did the “ordinary working people” who purchased overpriced houses have no input?
No that was Bertie
If Pearse Doherty threw eggs at Honohan, half the neaderthals on this site would applaud him ‘fair play to Sinn Fein for doing something’ they’d say, ‘they’re the only ones standing up for the people’
Who allowed them to become overpriced and who said that there would be a soft-landing ?
They are the people that are going to pay the ultimate price in a few months as more details and names of off-shore accounts becomes public from Europe through the internet !
It seems the banking inquiry has been timed to distract from the eviction push – so Enda can hold up his hands and look as if he is trying !
Poor Enda – he has chosen a very bad end for himself !
What are ‘neaderthals’ ,John ? Are they some kind of pastry bakers ?
Better to have an honest politician who is bad at maths than a corrupt politician who is good at it
Oggie, they’re a little known genetic mutation of Neanderthals who couldn’t process more than one letter ‘n’ in a word.
Thankig you,Johny .
Sammy, I think you give Doherty too much credit. If we actually put him on the spot and asked him to recite the 12 times tables, what are the odds he’d get it right?
Kangaroo court by the looks of it!!
Honohan graduated with a B.A. in Economics and Mathematics at University College Dublin in 1971 and received an M.A. from the same institution in 1973. From the London School of Economics he received an M.Sc. in Econometrics and Mathematical Economics (1974) and a PhD (1978). Doherty has a national certificate but he is entitled to a British passport because he was born in Scotland.
Would you like a map to get to a point?
you really feel for honohan it must be like talking to a cabbage
Yes Tap….all those qualifications certainly paid off….for him….not us.
Dohertys qualifications are unimportant, he is an elected representative and is entitled to question a public servant (Honohan). Honohans CV is impressive, except for when he was garret Fitzgeralds economic advisor in the 80′s, no wonder he needed a second turn. Bill Black’s testimony is the only one worth a damn so far. I’m no Shinner btw but Blueshirt snobs turn my stomach
Bryan, spot on! That American Bill Black guy/banking expert was very impressive and straight talking.
Mr Solny, don’t forget the education received by many Sinn Féin members in the H Blocks.
London Economics you say – and those ebing mentioned in the Anglo tapes …
The real question for me from all of this is how did a Merrill lynch banker know that Brian Cowen would loose his job – when it wasn’t anything to do with him !
The House of Windsor raises its ugly head again on the island !
Lyons dropped out off clown college.
Lyons….does having an education exempt you from answering questions?
Dumb troll.
Sam his point is that Doherty is an ignerant pleb, and Honohan is an intelligent, educated gentleman. Does that spell it out for you?
Fred in the republic everyone is a pleb … everyone !
No royalty here for good reason and no doffing the cap either !
Honahan is a very intelligent man so it’s unsurprising that he’s getting frustrated speaking to an idiot like Doherty and that other clown Higgins.
you really have to sympathise with honahan have to put up with this charade from those two idiots
or the irish people who are expected to accept this as acceptable after they have read the Anglo Tapes ….
Whether people get frustrated or not is quite irrelevant. It is good the be asking tough questions which need to be asked. If the answer is I dont know I wasn’t there o.k. then bring in someone who was there no?
Gregory – I admire the fact that there is some effort – but we have sat through countless piss-poor inquiries etc. with no one held to book and the legals making a fortune out of the national debt !
It is whataboutery once the Anglo boys got community service and heading the country in a direction that those who robbed the place blind don’t think can happen but will because of what I would term a cover-up !
you can only feel sorry for him having to deal with a numpty like doherty. shiners are desperately trying to cause any controversy to remove focus for the brutal rape of children that SF has know about for a long time and done absolutely nothing about. have they any morals at all?
I thought Arthur Morgans letter showed that SF did deal with it as you would expect them to. The journal is chosing not to cover that. There is no issue here other than political point scoring by the usual suspects.
*seven years too late
cold war kid, your choice of words was quite telling when you wrote: ‘SF did deal with it as you would expect them to.’ Yes, SF/IRA dealt with it in the manner that most rational, non-brainwashed SF/IRA cultists expected them to; Gerry Adams reluctantly admitted on the 6.01 News today that he knew in 2009 about Paudie McGahon’s ordeal, and the identity of the IRA man who raped Paudie when he was 17 – and I say ‘reluctantly’ because Bryan Dobson had to drag it out of him after Gerry tried to deflect the question. Also, on the same programme, they showed a snippet of an interview with Mairia Cahill where she said that the same IRA man who raped Paudie, is from a very influential IRA family in Belfast, and, she said that this same family are ‘currently’ linked to the IRA.
Lao – sf/ira is just the same as writing – “I am a catholic fearing protestant ” ..you know that don’t you ?
Look at Pearse Doherty … No tie, top button open, bit of chest hair. Maverick!
financial rock star… jesus wept :D
He should get a ‘je suis Pearce’ SnapBack Cap and go full gangster
Look at what you looked at Charles !
Sinn Fein IRA are taking after their new Syrzia friends from Greece, including in fashion. And im not being smart with this comment, they really literally are trying to copy the Syrzia playbook for taking power. Scary times.
ARE YOU A COWARD FRED …
SCAREDY CAT – IS THAT YOU ?
Hermes – The fact that you wrote your comment at 3am on a Wednesday night says a lot about what social class you come…
Im not scared for me, no. Im scared for this country if SInn Fein IRA get any sort of power. This country would be devastated, the multinationals would leave. We’d be a perfect Sinn Fein IRA paradise, a country of dodgy dealers and mafia-style politics. These dodgy socialist nordies need to be rounded up and locked up.
Maybe Paul Williams might like to ‘investigate’ Patrick Honohan on what he does and does not know about the banking criminals that crippled our country,that is providing Paul Williams is not to busy and he would’nt mind ‘investigating’ his Political Elite friends !
Eh Honohan wasn’t involved in banking at the time…
Did he bank in H.S.B.C. ?
Might have had a savings account there alright………
When is your man going to finish his college course?
Usually when they finish it :)
Sinn Fein IRA and university education….oxymoron!
Johnson and SF/IRA – FRIGHTENED PROTESTANT .
And another round of mutual back slapping from the FG cheerleaders, while the corruption of the banks and the cowardly actions of a government that has beggared the ordinary people of this country is being investigated.
Ordinary people are smarter than that. You really need to give people some credit for their ability to adapt to new circumstances. They’re not vegetables.
Here we go distraction distraction cause a row and take away the headlines about SF failure in sex abuse scandal
weapons of mass deflection is the battle cry
I used to do that when I was five throwing a tantrum.
Looks like the endabots here aren’t too happy about a banking enquiry.
Sinn Fein IRA are now questioning our politicians and bankers. How things change.. They need to be locked up, the lot of them. Dangerous socialist peasents. Dodgy, dodgy dodgy nordies coming down here with their mafia style “politics”.
sO YOU ADMIT IT HEN THAT THE BRITISH STILL RUN THE IRISH CIVIL SERVICE AND BANKS .
tHANKS FOR THAT !
Don’t you have school in the morning? Why are you writing comments at 3am?
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