Mr. Raymond Byrne:

One thing we did not do was look at how regulators regulate. That was not part of our function and we would not really be competent to do that. However, one issue that certainly comes up when one looks at the history of regulation in Ireland is resourcing. This was one of the reasons we added in our recommendation that when it comes to the establishment of a corporate crime agency, resourcing is a very important matter. Something we are not competent to decide is what the level of resourcing should be, but these are the kinds of issues involved. I refer to the expertise within any of the bodies - the existing regulatory bodies and the body proposed here in the form of a corporate enforcement authority. Has it sufficient resources, and would a corporate crime agency be given sufficient resources as well? We certainly know about this from history, certainly the history of the financial crisis. There were issues as to whether existing powers were being used appropriately but there was also no doubt about another issue as to whether there was appropriate resourcing of the bodies that were charged with responsibility for enforcing financial regulation in the State. Other than at the very high level of resourcing, we could not comment on these issues surrounding resources, technology and the capacity of regulators to ensure they have the information.