Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Governor, one of my former colleagues. Regulatory capture comes to mind. This must be the worst ever illustration of it. Ireland has an unwanted position in economic journals for the kind of performance which Professor Honohan's predecessor gave. The late Professor George Stigler won a Nobel prize for pointing out that regulatory capture is a form of political corruption that occurs when a regulatory agency, created to act in the public interest, instead advances the commercial or special concerns of interest groups that dominate the industry or sector it is charged with regulating. That is what we have been listening to in the High Court.