On Monday last, Seán Quinn phoned some government ministers. He was concerned about the direction of an investigation by the Financial Regulator. It is not clear what he expected from the ministers. The Financial Regulator is an independent body, much like the Director for Corporate Enforcement, the DPP or the gardaí.

None of the ministers returned his call. When Quinn revealed the calls later in the week, he sounded disappointed, even indignant, that the ministers didn't get back to him.

On Tuesday morning, the Financial Regulator applied to the High Court to appoint provisional administrators to Quinn Insurance Ltd. It was an ex-parte application, meaning Quinn wasn't represented. The regulator was unhappy about the way QIL was being managed. On 24 March, the insurance company had informed the regulator about guarantees given on the company reserves as security for other loans within the Quinn group. This action depleted the reserve by around €450 million, raising questions about solvency. After due consideration, the regulator felt there was no option but to go to the High Court. Judge John Cooke granted the application and pencilled in a full hearing for 12 April.

Later on Tuesday, Quinn wrote to every member of the cabinet to complain: "You will know by now that the regulator has appointed provisional administrators to QIL. We believe this action is highly aggressive and unnecessary and will make the repayment of outstanding debt extremely difficult. It also endangers 5,500 jobs in Ireland unless immediately reversed."

The debt being referred to is €2.8 billion which Quinn owes to Anglo Irish Bank, an institution now owned by the citizens. There is no reason to believe that any jobs are in jeopardy as a result of the provisional administration.

Quinn rang some more ministers that day. They didn't return his call. On Wednesday, in the Seanad, Joe O'Reilly issued a word of caution about where the country might be headed.

"We could be moving from light-touch regulation to over-regulation," he said. A day after the citizens had heard that their children and grandchildren will be paying for a few years of light-touch regulation, some genius of a senator was warning about the dangers of over-regulation on the basis of action against Quinn.

The pressure was ramped up on Thursday. In the afternoon, a group of 300 Quinn workers protested outside the Dáil over what had befallen Seán Quinn. It is unclear who initiated the workers' action, how they arrived at Leinster House, or whether the workers were given time off to make their feelings known.

Meanwhile, inside the Seanad, Diarmuid Wilson revealed that he knew for a fact that the regulator had made a serious mistake.

"The action of the Financial Regulator has caused massive reputational damage, including overseas and especially in the United Kingdom. Seán Quinn, his family, co-directors and employees are seriously hurt by the innuendo that something untoward was taking place which is clearly not the case."

Despite the benefit of parliamentary privilege, Wilson did not reveal how he knew that nothing untoward had taken place. Perhaps he has supernatural powers that enable him to divine these things.

On Thursday evening, Quinn himself was interviewed for RTE news. He came across very well, plausible, throwing in a few mentions of his family, referring to Seán Quinn in the third person, as if his name alone was a brand for integrity.

The regulator had made a "huge mistake", he said. "I don't know why they made it. I don't know what happened."

If Quinn really doesn't know why provisional administrators were appointed, then he has a serious problem.

By Friday, Senator Wilson was on Morning Ireland. His line was that Quinn was a victim because the High Court was petitioned without Quinn being notified.

"I want fairness for him and I want justice. There is no justice in a one-sided argument." The senator, who is the chief whip for Fianna Fáil in the Seanad, was casting Quinn as a victim.

When asked about Brian Lenihan backing the regulator, Wilson said he wanted to talk only about the regulator. When it was put to him that the High Court had approved the appointment, Wilson said he didn't want to talk about the courts. The problem was the regulator, who quite obviously didn't know what he was doing.

The head of financial regulation is Matthew Elderfield, a 44-year-old Englishman who took office in January. He got some introduction to business Irish-style over the past week.

What the sequence of events reveals is that, even in a week when the future was writ large over the sins of the past, so many people are still willing to jettison any notion of proper regulation in order to defend special interests. If that's the way these things are conducted now, when we know what we know, what was it like at the height of the bubble?

The former head of the Financial Regulator, Patrick Neary, is widely believed to have been responsible for much of the light-touch regulation. But what if he had tried a firmer hand? What pressure would he have been subjected to at a time when everything was allegedly hunky dory? Would ministers have returned Quinn's calls at the height of the boom? Would a government led by Bertie Ahern have stood by and allowed a powerful man be so discommoded by some regulator acting in the public interest?

It wasn't just politicians falling at the feet of Quinn who abused Elderfield last week. On Tuesday, Fianna Fáil TD Ned O'Keeffe declared that the regulator was not giving the banks enough space to get their houses in order.

If given time, Ned said, "they won't be depending on the state and Mr Elderfield to tell us what to do. We don't want foreigners in here. Michael Collins, Liam Lynch, Pádraig Pearse and James Connolly wouldn't have those foreigners running our business."

There is no reason to believe that the men of 1916 were, as Ned appears to imply, bigots. There is every reason to believe they would have court-martialed, and applied the ultimate sanction to, members of a government who ran the country into the ground. (Ned, by the way, was a junior minister from 1997 to 2001.)

Elderfield has his work cut out for him. But his performance so far suggests that the citizens can rest easier in their beds. Despite the state we're in, at least there is a public servant who is committed to ensuring we are not thrust further into the abyss by reckless businesspeople or politicians.

The reaction last week to Quinn's problems spoke volumes. An observer from abroad might have got the impression that, before last week, the man's record was that of a living saint.

Inside and outside the Dáil, there were numerous references to the thousands of jobs Quinn had created. Nobody has ever given Seán FitzPatrick, or assorted property developers, much credit for the thousands of jobs they created.

Our friend Senator Wilson described Quinn as a "patriot", which suggests that all the mighty Quinn has done was done in the name of Ireland.

Quinn is, by any standards, a very successful businessman. Contrary to Wilson's silly bleatings, there was no "media circus" around Quinn last week. Contrary to his own claims last year, Quinn is not the subject of a media witch-hunt. On the contrary, before the trouble of recent years, Quinn was allowed very favourable press.

His success was not marked by the boorish ostentatiousness displayed by others. He maintained his home in the north-east. He is a genuine family man. He was cut from a different cloth than others who had attained the same level of success.

Amid all the talk of policy-holders last week, there was little word about claimants, those for whom insurance is effectively designed.

Quinn Direct has created a pattern in dealing with claimants who don't accept a swift settlement on the company's terms. The company challenges them aggressively all the way into court, through a legal system that can threaten ruin, and then, if the claimant has stuck out the journey, the company settles at the last moment.

So it was last year with paraplegic John Deegan, whom for seven years Quinn Direct had accused of fraud. Only after the judge opined that there was no evidence of fraud did the company settle for €1.75 million. In some of these cases, judges expressed concern over the way Quinn Direct conducted itself.

In one case, a judge threatened to charge company executives with contempt and refer them to the DPP.

Seán Quinn himself had to step down as chairman of the insurance arm in 2008 after the then regulator fined him €200,000, and the company €3.25 million, for using insurance reserve money inappropriately.

Quinn is also being investigated over the Anglo Ten affair, where individuals were invited to buy 10% of Quinn's 25% stake in Anglo Irish Bank so as to prop up the share price. It is unclear how much Quinn knew about what the bank was doing, but the manoeuvre was deemed necessary because Quinn had secretly built up his stake, which ultimately threatened the stability of the bank.

Through his reckless involvement with Anglo Irish, Quinn played a role in its downfall. He owes the bank €2.8 billion which, if recovered, might offset the billions the taxpayer is expected to stump up.

On 12 April, he will have the chance to regain control of his insurance company. He deserves every chance to do so, but not at the expense of the hundreds of thousands of people who interact with the business.

At least now, the optics suggest that ordinary citizens can rely on a regulator who is focused first and foremost on looking after the public interest.