Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I understand all that and I appreciate the Minister's clarification. We are getting down to the net point. I accept that the credit service provider, no matter where it is based, that has the interaction will be covered. That is good. We can put that side of the issue to bed. However, the loan book owner is the real issue. I understand from what the Minister said that the loan book owner, once it is in the European Union area, is regulated by the European Central Bank, ECB. My original comment was about a situation in which the loans are sold outside Ireland - say, in Canada, a non-EU country. Earlier in his reply, the Minister said they would be regulated and he referred to the European Union. Where the loan book owner is outside the EU and European regulation, is that owner out of the system? What happens to the owner outside the EU system and where is he or she captured in the system? The Minister might say it is anti-competitive, and I accept that it would limit the sale process of some of these loans if the regulated institutions in Ireland who are selling off chunks of loan books were confined to selling them to organisations that are already regulated in the European Union. We could possibly live with that, because we are part of the EU, but what is the position in regard to the firm outside the EU?