Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh maith agat. Mr. Cowen, in your statement, you said with regard to the Financial Regulator there was:

A failure to properly judge the risk that was building up in the banks and that the 2003 legislation dividing the micro and macroeconomic responsibilities between the Financial Regulator and the Central Bank did not work as well as intended, and that consumer protection aspects were emphasised at the expense of the prudential responsibility that the Financial Regulator had.

Now, we know that the Financial Regulator was accountable to the Oireachtas through the Minister for Finance. So do you think that a part of the failure of the Financial Regulator was due to the lack of oversight from the Minister for Finance and the Oireachtas?