Ex-Financial Regulator blames ‘everybody’ but himself for Ireland’s financial crisis

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In a speech which saw him blame "everybody" for the country's economic woes, former Financial Regulator Brian Patterson made no reference to the role the failure of bank regulation had in the collapse of the economy.

Instead he suggested that people who had bought houses or shares during that period were somehow responsible for what has happened.

"We were all responsible," said Patterson in a speech to the Kilkenny Chamber of Commerce on Friday.

Patterson, who was the regulator at a time when banks such as Anglo Irish and Allied Irish Banks were recklessly lending billions to builders, retired as chairman of the Financial Regulator in 2008 and is the current chairman of Vodafone Ireland.

According to the Independent, he also extolled "our wonderful health system" and a democracy that allows a change of government without military coups.

He also criticized his former employer, the Irish Times, and several other news organizations for being overly gloomy.

Patterson added that in the future he intends to avoid negativity and no longer reads UCD academic Morgan Kelly, who correctly predicted the collapse in house prices and, recently predicted that the number of people defaulting on mortgage payments will jump.

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