Hayes: ‘We must learn from mistakes’

The unprecedented financial crisis that has gripped the State since 2008 has required an equally unprecedented legislative response, but this has been accompanied by a raft of reforms that will prevent a future collapse, according to Brian Hayes, minister for State at the Department of Finance.

“Politics, the Catholic Church, many of the professions, the media, have all been undermined by failure and scandals. Trust is very easily broken, but once broken, is very difficult to restore,” he said in a speech at Griffith College Dublin.

“We made a serious mistake in Ireland when we gave so much unfettered power to so many people and institutions. In some respects Irish people were too trusting, too loyal, too unwilling to question.