Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

Right. So, now, Governor, an increasing number of insurance companies, hedge funds, asset managers, special purpose vehicles are choosing to domicile in Ireland and the Irish Financial Services Centre and so forth. Funds under management, according to the Irish funds industry, are set to reach to €2 trillion this year and there's been exponential growth in those fundings, 25% in 2014 and 14% increase in quarter one of 2015, which is €234 billion of an increase, bringing it up to €2 trillion. Now, I just want to ask you in relation to where the next crisis might come from, which is a question you kind of posed there. Is it disturbing or not to see in the Irish funds industry promotional material the following, "Through its work with governmental and industry committees and working groups, [Irish funds] contributes to and influences the development of Ireland’s regulatory and legislative framework." That's one quote and the second one is:

Irish regulated funds are exempt from Irish tax on income and gains derived from their investments and are not subject to any Irish tax on their net asset value. There are additionally no net asset, transfer or capital taxes on the issue, transfer or redemption of units owned by non-Irish resident investors. ... Non-Irish investors are not subject to Irish tax on their investment and do not incur any withholding taxes on payments from the fund.

A question that arises for me, which I would like to pose to you, Governor, is the finance industry, perhaps, one crisis ahead of the State and the regulatory system? And let me just put it in this context: that in the 2000s, we had evidence here in the 2000s during the bubble, the regulator was assiduously regulating for issues that had taken place in the previous ten years, consumer issues, etc. You have been busy putting in place regulation to try and prevent what happened during the bubble. But here, we have remarkable language and a promotion not unlike what we heard in relation to property tax breaks, etc. So, is it possible that another crisis is developing here, that the Irish State or regulatory system is not on top of?