Patrick Neary’s blunders didn’t end
there. The Financial Regulator allowed the
Quinn Group (which later went into administration) a loan from Anglo Irish Bank
worth €169 million in order to purchase Anglo Irish shares. Another Financial
Regulator scandal hit Irish headlines in January 2009. Ernst and Young was employed to give advice
to the Financial Regulator in regards to the €440 billion bank guarantee
scheme, regardless of the fact that Ernst and Young was being inspected due to
its audits of Anglo Irish Bank. In
2009, a report on the performance of the Financial Regulator by the Financial
Services Consultative Consumer Panel disclosed that the Regulator’s failure to
manage the property bubble had caused significant deterioration in the economic
downturn in Ireland.
On
the 8th March 2010, Paul Krugman from The New York Times wrote: “The most striking similarity between Ireland
and America was ‘regulatory imprudence’. The people charged with keeping banks
safe didn’t do their jobs. In Ireland,
regulators looked the other way in part because the country was trying to
attract foreign business, in part because of cronyism: bankers and property
developers had close ties to the ruling party.”
In
September 2010, Former President of Ireland Mary McAleese criticised the
Financial Regulator for their part played in the financial crisis which consequently
resulted in thousands of individuals in mortgage arrears. She deemed light-touch regulation as the main
factor for the economic collapse which had been adopted by the Irish government
“It is long argued that heavy,
strong-handed regulation was not the most conducive environment for business
yet as we now know to our great cost, that light regulation was a recipe for
trouble.” (Mary McAleese, 2010)
http://www.shane-ross.ie/archives/456/where-were-the-auditors/
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