Mr. Brian Cowen:

Well, obviously, the Government ... if you've a legislative framework, it's the Government that makes the decision as to what the legislation looks like. Clearly, in an issue such as this, which is quite complex and specialised, you need to have the inputs of people who are working on the front line, who understand the industry, understand where the trends of the industry are going. So you'd have inputs from all of them. Relating to the specific point you raise about this question of consolidating the legislation into one Act, that was, if you like, a recommendation of the McDowell report, to have a unified legal framework to underpin, if you like, effective and efficient operation of a single regulatory authority for financial services. There was a lot of stuff coming in from the EU as well. There was a lot of directives and things like that. So there was a need to pull this together and to have that, if you like, as a sort of a window to potential investors in the future as to what the regulatory situation in Ireland was, to be able to communicate that in a coherent way rather than having five or six statutes all over the place and directives here and all the rest of it. So, from an administrative clarity point of view, as well as policy clarity point of view, it was suggested that we would do it that way. To answer your question was the tone set, I think, you know, at the end of the day, Government must take responsibility for legislative proposals it brings forward, but I believe that it's ... the principles that are set out in the wider regulation document you're talking about is again about Ireland ... it's in Ireland's interests as a small open economy to have modern frameworks, to be updated in its laws, to have legal certainty - that's an important point for potential investors - to have, if you like, a continuum of policy regardless of political changes of Government - that involves co-operation at the political level, at the Oireachtas level, to make sure people buy into the concept. So that's all part of the democratic consideration of these things. And ... but in a case as specialised as this, without contradicting myself, clearly, you know, the advisory forum that was set up to begin the work on doing a heads of a Bill would involve people from the industry that would be well regarded, have good reputation with the Department of Finance, working with our own draftspeople to come up with a proposal that would meet the requirements not only of today but of the future as well.