Professor Terrence McDonough:

In the context of the Irish situation deregulation was very much in service of a strategy of internationalisation. This strategy had been seen to be successful and it was the basis on which policy makers were thinking about economic policy in the future. It was transferred directly to the financial sector with the push for the IFSC and then people asked what they could do to attract investment into this sector of the global economy in Ireland. The basic thing to do was to offer them a free hand and that is what I think was done.