Professor Philip Lane:

I think the phrasing of capital markets union will be important. Essentially too much capital flows through banks which therefore puts depositors at risk and therefore puts governments at risk in order to protect depositors, whereas if one has much more funding going through capital markets essentially it is much more transparent about who bears the risk. It protects, basically, regular savers, who deal with regular banks, from risk. I think it is a positive for Ireland. If there is an alternative for banks, there is more by way of bond markets and more by way of equity funding - all of those things which have been traditionally limited are possible at a European scale with commitment to make that happen. I think that is important for the future of Europe.

Part of the tragedy of what has happened is Europe was too dependent on banks and therefore there has been basically so much effort to save the banks and that has been so expensive.