Professor Terrence McDonough:

The Irish banking crisis can be most easily traced to a combination of financialisation on the one hand and neo-liberalism on the other. The linking of Ireland to the global financial markets was extraordinarily strong. There was quite a bit of money available which consequently was brought into the country and transferred to domestic activity. The low level of regulation and the high level of openness to financial movements would probably be where I would lay the most emphasis. This is also closely related to the whole goal of globalisation and the establishment of the IFSC was part of our globalisation strategy.