Dinner with Bulgarians, then onto Prime Time

Patrick Neary had no time for dessert as he went on national television to reassure the country

Patrick Neary: the former financial regulator ‘bought into a system of regulation that didn’t work’ Picture: Tony O'Shea
Patrick Neary: the former financial regulator ‘bought into a system of regulation that didn’t work’ Picture: Tony O'Shea

Up on the seventh floor of the Central Bank of Ireland’s Dublin headquarters, on the evening of October 2, 2008, Patrick Neary excused himself early from dinner with Meglena Kuneva, the European Union’s consumer affairs commissioner from Bulgaria.

Ireland’s financial regulator had an interview to do with the state broadcaster RTE, he explained to Kuneva and the ...