Mr. David McWilliams:

Yes and that is a fair point. The committee has one of the very few guys, namely, me, who spent nearly ten years issuing warnings about all of this, including the nexus between bankers and developers and how this was sucking away the resources of the country. Although I made all of those connections, my major concern, as an economist and a commentator, lay in the fact that if one sees all that stuff emerging, it only reinforces the need to have really strong, independent regulation. People do what people do and this constantly underscores the need for strong, independent, highly vigilant regulators. The most important point about regulation is that one can have the best regulation in the world but if one does not police it, it is not worth the paper on which it is written.

As such it is better to have fewer points of regulation which are well policed rather than to have pages and pages of unpoliced regulations. What the Deputy has painted is a picture which underscores absolutely the need for strong, independent, unimpaired, almost loner-type figures. There is no problem with being a loner and not having a gang to hang out with in order to police what the Deputy speaks of.