All business deals must be transparent

On April 1 2005, an auspicious date if there ever was one, the New York Times stated that along with its reputation for innovation, Dublin has become known in the insurance industry as something of the Wild West of European finance, a perception that helped prompt the creation of the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority two years ago.

Despite its mandate for stricter oversight, the agency has yet to impose major sanctions on any institution even though Ireland has recently experienced several major banking scandals.

This article was in 2005 — several years before the economy completely collapsed predominately because of banking issues. Obviously, we learned nothing in the intervening years. Given recent events in relation to Siteserv, the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC), billionaire media mogul Denis O’Brien, the Irish courts and Dáil privilege, one can only wonder if we’ve still not learnt anything.