Professor Philip Lane:

The Chair also asked whether this would be a good framework for Europe to adopt. In recent weeks and months, especially since the Bill that Deputy Michael McGrath proposed, we went back and re-examined the matter, root and branch. A natural starting point is to ask why regulation is not in a position to deal with it. Indeed, that was the reason for the initial establishment of the Central Bank and indeed the Department of Finance. The conclusion, a number of years ago, was that from the point of view of consumer protection the credit servicing firm is the correct level to do it at.