Dáil debates
Tuesday, 6 July 2010
Economic Issues: Motion
There was a need for coherent thinking but that was discarded by the political culture of that time. It is not hard to understand how the Central Bank and the Financial Regulator proved unequal to confronting the arrogant swagger of these bankers, who thought they knew how to run the world and that they could walk on water. The culture of the time was that these were the Titans. They were the people one wanted to be close to so one could invite them to one's fund-raising functions; they were people to admire, as if they were creators of something worthwhile. These were not great entrepreneurs creating enterprises that built business but people who dealt in speculative investments. However, they became the titans of this country. They were cosy in their relationship with the Government, and that filtered through to the Central Bank, whose Governor was always appointed from within the Government circle, the Secretary General of the Department of Finance. It was an internal, cosy arrangement.
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