Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Well, The New York Timesarticle, which I always regarded as a bit of a wake-up call, because I was finance spokesperson then, basically related to the lack of regulation and oversight, particularly in relation to the IFSC because, as regulation developed in Ireland and after the Act that Deputy Rabbitte has referred to ... I think the McDowell report was 1999, it was discussed in the period up to 2002, and then the legislation began to be brought in after the 2002 general election. But actually, Deputy, The New York Timescomment was about the fact that the IFSC and certain types of insurance companies by then were not, as I understand it, regulated at all. So, there was a move to regulation generally, but the development of regulation in Ireland was very slow and the publication of information and questioning of regulators, which is now, obviously, much more common, just ... it was in its absolute, bare infancy at that point in time.