Financial Assistance (Ireland)
Debate between George Osborne and Ben Bradshaw(14 years, 1 month ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Mr Osborne
Yes, I do. Ireland’s links are not just with Northern Ireland, they are also with Wales, Scotland and England. The Irish banks were of course engaged in lending into the UK economy, UK banks have engaged in lending into the Irish economy, and many companies export to each other’s countries. We are deeply interconnected, which is why I have proposed this set of measures.
Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab)
Does the right hon. Gentleman not have the tiniest smidgen of regret about what he used to say about the Irish economic model?
Mr Osborne
I seem to remember plenty of Labour Ministers standing at the Dispatch Box praising what Ireland was doing to make itself competitive, to reduce its corporate tax rates and to create a flexible labour market. That is the tragedy—it did so much in that direction to make itself competitive, but it did not properly regulate its banking system. We in the UK know the price of that.