Protecting Ireland’s reputation as an international financial centre is important and means that both firms and the Central Bank need to be vigilant about standards in this sector. What about the argument that it’s not fair to take enforcement action for mistakes? Or that when a management team self-reports a breach they should get an exemption from enforcement?
A second element of our defense is being careful about foreign borrowing, especially at the very short term. So we have expanded limits for foreign portfolio investment into government debt in a very measured way, even though considerable pressure has been put on us by foreign investors to create more room.