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

Can I ask you, Mr. Farrell, in October 2009 you spoke at the Kenmare economic conference where you said in relation to the banks and the crisis, "We built opacity and complexity into the banking model, which truth be told, defied understanding." That was the quote that you had. One of the objectives of the inquiry is to arrive at the understanding at the logic and rationale that underpinned the Irish banking business model. The people who designed the system, who regulated the system and who lobbied for changes to the system were all intelligent and rational people. Can you explain to the committee, what was the rationale for making an Irish banking model, in your own words, complex and opaque? Who benefitted from such a complex and opaque system that was created?