Mr. Brian Cowen:

Well, I don't think it was meant that regulation wasn't tough. As I say, the primary responsibility should never have been compromised in any ... you know, people have wider responsibilities but your first job is, "I'm a regulator, so I do the regulation." What you're also being asked to do is to make sure that you recognise that there's a wider industry here, there's a wider, common, public benefit in terms of having an industry that's competitive in that area in Ireland and it was one of the successes coming out of a difficult period for the country and has provided a lot of good jobs and opportunities for young people.

But I take your point to this extent that there seems to have been some confusion in someone's mind as to what was the important role they had and what was an ancillary role which was simply being supportive of efforts to improve or to increase the presence of financial services in Ireland. It did not - and I don't believe it was conscious on anyone's part it; it seemed to me to be a, sort of a, cultural thing - but we've always had ... in order to make it a success, there has been through the Clearing House Group and through consultation panels, etc., the need to make sure that if Ireland were competitive that we were listening to those who were in the forefront of this business to make sure that we had ... that we were competitive, that we didn't have a regulatory regime that would mean that all your so-called investments in this area would go to London or New York or somewhere else.