Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate that. In the same paper, Professor Connor uses a phrase the committee has heard on a number of occasions, with Dublin being described in the pre-crisis period as the "Wild West of European finance". The paper states: "Starting in the early 1990s, the Irish government made a strategic decision to become a world-leader in 'offshore' financial services." Among the attractions of this country was the "light-touch, almost nonexistent, tax and regulatory oversight". The paper goes on to state:

An unintended consequences of the extremely light-touch financial regulatory regime in Ireland was to hobble Irish regulators in their oversight of domestic banks. The actions of the Irish financial regulator [were at that time] secretive with limited public disclosure.

Will Professor Connor explain these very strong statements?