Déirdre de Búrca (Green Party)

It is hard to concentrate on other issues given the turbulence in the international financial markets and the impact this is having on financial institutions, taxpayers and consumers in Ireland. I welcome the action of the Minister for Finance on protecting Irish banks because the interests of Irish taxpayers and consumers will as a result be protected in the longer term. However, the financial sector cannot continue with business as usual and we have to be realistic and accept that the financial markets are no longer subject to the control of any individual government. We have international financial markets and the current events in the US are having a direct effect on the markets in this country.

I concur with the call from my European Green Party colleagues in the European Parliament for an EU-wide supervisory authority for financial markets. They also called for a system of regulation and authorisation of management companies and fund managers. This is important because the essence of the problem with the financial system appears to be that self-regulation has been the modus operandi to date. Governments have allowed the situation to arise whereby many of the instruments traded on these markets are not fully understood by the bodies which are supposed to be regulating them.

My colleagues in the European Parliament have called for debt limits to be placed on hedge funds. Arising from our recent experiences, that would seem to be a positive move. I call for us to summon the political will not just to address this issue and debate how to respond to it at a domestic level, but also to use our influence within the European Union to call for and be party to the establishment of an EU-wide regulatory authority that will ensure that problems such as those we are now facing will not occur again in the international financial system.