John Gerard Hanafin (Fianna Fail)

I would also welcome an external review of the Department of Finance and the processes of decision making. However, I am very cognisant of the context in which the decision was taken. In 2004 The Economist had an article with the housing bubble depicted as a balloon, which was right because three years later it burst. We were told internationally, by no less a person than Alan Greenspan of the US Treasury, that by the use of the interest rate mechanism it was possible to manage the external flow and management of credit. In addition the former British Prime Minister, Mr. Gordon Brown, MP, told us that we had reached the end of boom-bust economics. To imagine for some instant that the economic view of this nation was very different from any other model, with a few rare exceptions, is misguided and that will be proved. It was a process undertaken internationally. Undoubtedly, we were part of that process, but had it not been for the international downturn we would have managed that process well. However, the most important question to be answered is whether it can happen again. Do we need EU regulation to curb the financial practices that have created these difficulties? We certainly do. We need a debate on that issue in the House.