Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I hear the Minister of State but the overall point is that we now have a single supervisory mechanism, SSM, so the largest banks are regulated on a pan-European basis. There is a common standard of regulation across Europe in respect of the larger banks, at least. There is really no reason, in a proper Single Market, Irish consumers should not be able to buy products from these banks. It is an issue that we should be particularly strong on because of the high rates here. We should be to the fore in pushing for that Single Market system to come into effect for financial services. I take the Minister of State's point about potential downsides. We have had Setanta Insurance and hopefully no more such incidents will occur because of the passporting in and the fact that firms only have to be regulated here for conduct of business purposes. Where institutions are properly regulated at a European level by the SSM, there is no reason they should not be able to sell into Ireland. Currently, they cannot.