Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

No, I recommended, in September 2007, I recommended €50,000 and people gasped, believe it or not, because it was considered so radical. I subsequently suggested that it would be €75,000 and, in fact, Deputy, former Minister Brian Lenihan, the late Brian Lenihan ultimately raised it to €100,000 and we supported that very strongly. The second really big thing that was missing that would have been helpful was resolution, you know, in other words, it was almost impossible in the Irish legal structure to in fact have a bankruptcy or an insolvency in a bank. We didn't have the legal mechanisms. That's been subsequently addressed, it's a resolution mechanism that should have been there. I certainly read Professor Honohan's articles around banking crisis as part of the background reading and that gave a lot of advice and presumably, subsequently that was why Deputy Lenihan actually appointed Patrick Honohan as the Governor of the Central Bank.

I've made my point about the contracts for difference, and can I just say this: the Dublin Stock Exchange is a small stock exchange. Bank shares were one of the key elements of that Stock Exchange, and yet the Stock Exchange was allowed to become a kind of casino for contracts for difference. The share by investors, the build-up of a stake in Anglo Irish Bank, which was ultimately potentially going to take over that bank, was key to the collapse of the bank subsequently. Had that 1% ... had Brian Cowen implemented what he said he would do, the 1% stamp share tax on the CFDs, I believe ... again, it wouldn't have stopped everything that happened subsequently but I think it would have been ... it might have woken up the investors who were taking over their stake in Anglo through CFDs. If those ... if they had to be recorded and paid tax, it might have just made some of the people who were gambling pause for thought. Would it have prevented it? I think it would have mitigated it.