Professor Patrick Honohan:

I think if to the extent that successive Governments regard the IFSC and its contribution to employment and taxation as important, I think a degree of interaction is likely to be a consequence of that. I don't think the politicians shouldn't be close at politician level but the officials who make legislation, so the Department of Finance or the Department of industry or whatever enterprise or whatever it's called now, if they want to keep these businesses, they need to understand what legislation ... if this legislation is old fashioned, it will not enable these companies to work. So I don't defend it. It is just part and parcel of wanting to have an international centre.