[3] The previous chief executive officer was Patrick Neary, who retired early over the handling of the regulator's investigation into the €87 million in secret directors' loans at Anglo Irish Bank.

[9] The regulator was a distinct element of the Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland with clearly defined regulatory responsibilities which covered all Irish financial institutions, including those previously regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, the Office of the Director of Consumer Affairs and the Registrar of Friendly Societies.

[11] Following the failure of the then-regulatory structures to prevent excessive lending to the property sector,[12] consultants Mazars, which were brought in to review operations said that "regulatory expertise was lacking in some areas.

"[13] Responding to the highlighted weakness, Brian Lenihan, the then Minister for Finance, said "substantial additional staff with the skills, experience and market-based expertise will be appointed.

[16] A July 2009 editorial, in the respected Sunday Business Post, said "returning the key powers of regulation to the Central Bank will be useless unless there is a fundamental change in the culture of the organisation.

"[17] The Irish Times, a national "newspaper of record" opined that "the Financial Regulator has a death wish and its regulatory edict verges on the Pythonesque, eating into what is left of its credibility.

)[24] The New York Times referred to the Irish insurance industry as the "Wild West of European finance" in April 2005 which was seen to underline the fragility of the Country's Financial Regulation system.

[36] They did not give their consumer panel a copy of the report of the working group set up following the collapse of a stockbrokers,[37][38] where some investors were waiting over 7 years to have their claims processed.

[42] Transcripts of phone calls by the Financial Regulator's senior staff suggested they gave tacit approval to the illicit movement of deposits involving Irish Life and Permanent plc.

[43] The Financial Regulator knew that Allied Irish Banks were overcharging consumers in FX fees but failed to act for a number of years.

[46][47] The whistleblower who gave the FR the information was requested to come to a meeting with them but was only invited to withdraw the allegations of wrongdoing and at the same time found himself removed from his position at Allied Irish Banks without any reason given.

[50] In response they said "It is clear that the actions we took were insufficient and were not taken early enough",[51][52][53] The Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny and finance spokesman Richard Bruton called for the board and senior management of the Financial Regulator to be sacked.

[62][63] The then Chief Executive of the Financial Regulator told the same committee that "a lay person would expect that issues of this nature and this magnitude would have been picked up” by the external auditors.

The Chairman of one of the Credit Union's who suffered large losses told his members ‘'The failure to publish the reports is to place the complaints process in a shroud of secrecy.

[90][91] In Autumn of the same year, they were severely criticised in a report marked "strictly confidential and not for publication", commissioned on how it operates, said they were poor value for money and had too few specialist staff, compared with its peers.

"[97] The director general of the Free Legal Advice Centres in October 2009 said, the code of conduct on mortgage arrears produced by the Financial Regulator was "deeply disappointing", and did not offer enough protection for consumers.

[101] These failings undermines their ability to enhance or enforce corporate governance in the wider financial services sector.It also warned "that the reforms announced to date were not sufficient to avert more crisis' in the future.

[109][110] High risk and sloppy lending practices at the Irish Nationwide Building Society were reported to the Financial Regulator by external accountants over a long period but did not change its behaviour.

[116] Management at Irish Nationwide used to arrange meetings with the FR for late on a Friday afternoon, knowing that the regulator's staff would not want for the encounter to last for more than an hour because it would nibble into their weekend.

One of the reports noted that the Financial Regulator had found substantial departures from credit policy during inspections of banks, but failed adequately to follow up on its concerns.

[132] Almost simultaneously external reviewers highlighted the "unacceptable" pace of investigation into how the financial system in Ireland came close to collapse "leaves a lot to be desired".

[139] Five years elapsed before the FR forced Davy Stockbrokers to inform investors, who lost tens of millions of Euro, that ‘'the instrument sold was not compliant with the Trustees (Authorised Investments) Order at the time of its sale as it was not listed on a recognised Stock Exchange'’ and it "dealt as principal in both the purchase and sale and was in breach of the rules of the Irish Stock Exchange by not disclosing this fact on its contract note'’.