Professor Philip Lane:

Those are short-hand comments. When I say that, I mean that what we care about is the safety of Irish society. If the investment fund loses money, we are not exposed. If banks lose money, as Mr. Sibley stated earlier on, part of the post-crisis reforms mean that where an individual bank gets into trouble, we now have a structure and a plan to be able to shut that bank without causing losses to the taxpayer. Ultimately, if the whole banking system is in trouble, there are scenarios where the Government would have to step in. The risk to society is through the banking system. Having a role for non-banks means it is less likely that all of the lending risk in the economy is in the banks. I do not care about banks, as such. We work for the public. We do not work for the banks. If the banks are unstable, however, there are social and taxation consequences.