Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his reply. It is a sorry saga from which I hope lessons are learnt - not just in Ireland but elsewhere in Europe. It shows that an EU-wide system of regulation is only as strong as its weakest link. The Central Bank needs to ensure that when firms passport in their services into Ireland and are only regulated here for conduct of business purposes that is made known to the consumer loud and clear because when people hear an advertisement that such a financial services is regulated here for conduct of business purposes, they assume it means it is fully regulated here in Ireland, but, of course, it does not.

It may be prudentially regulated in another European Union country and if that country's system of regulation is not up to standard, it can create a terrible mess in this country at huge cost to people who will be directly affected. The Central Bank of Ireland needs to ensure that the public are aware of the distinction between conduct of business purposes regulation and prudential regulation because in this case and in other cases where we have had difficulties, the insurer was not prudentially regulated in Ireland. People would not have known that.

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