Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)
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Professor Lane said lessons had been learned but in the history of capitalism, lessons have been learned which then seem to be unlearned, with the same mistakes being repeated. In the US, some of the stricter regulation that was introduced in the aftermath of the crisis is in the process of being reversed. We have probably not seen the same effect in the European Union but pressure could yet come to bear. I take the point that the more regulatory supervision is done at European level, the more we are safeguarded from pressures but one of the things that came out of the banking inquiry was how deregulation in the IFSC washed back into the domestic economy. Professor Gregory Connor said the IFSC specialised in regulatory arbitrage and tax arrangements that pushed at the limits, which is what offshore centres do but was done to excess in some cases in the IFSC. Furthermore, the philosophy washed back into the domestic economy and the regulation of financial markets in the domestic economy of Ireland was hobbled by the very light-touch approach that was one of the founding principles of the IFSC.