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

And on that very point Mr. Cowen, there was evidence here that the presence of the financial services centre was, indeed, a pressure, acceded to by Government and the regulator to lessen the robustness of regulation on the Irish banks and can I quote you from your own book of evidence, Vol 1, page 11? It's fairly straightforward. This is Mr. Con Horan who was prudential director of the Central Bank, "Speeches and corporate publications of [the regulator] made regular references to the desire to foster innovation and competitiveness and, for the system to work properly, the need to trust those at the helm of financial institutions to act prudently." And then to the bottom of that paragraph-----