Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

One of the central points that Professor Kane made is that there is an implicit safety net for banks. They know, if they get into trouble and are too big to fail, that the State will come to their rescue. Does he think that was a real consideration in the lead-up of the crisis in the back of the minds of executives running large and systemically important institutions around the world? Does he believe they might have been taking risks they knew they should not be taking but the backdrop of the safety net allowed them to proceed?