Ireland’s former banking regulator has said “sorry” for his role in a crisis which led the country to the brink of bankruptcy.

The man responsible for regulating Ireland's financial sector in the run-up to the bank guarantee is appearing before the Banking Inquiry today.

The chief executive of Bank of Ireland says the bank did not feel it needed the guarantee on the night of September 29, 2008.

The Oireachtas Banking Inquiry steps up a gear today as it is due to hear from former AIB chiefs Dermot Gleeson and Donal Forde.

Relatives of the late Brian Lenihan have reportedly written to the banking inquiry demanding the right to reply to allegations made about his performance as former Finance Minister.

Former Taoiseach Brian Cowen has accepted that mistakes were made in the handling of the controversial bank guarantee of 2008.

The Governor of the Central Bank said today that the bank guarantee was not the main cause of austerity.

Common sense should be applied when using comments of the past to measure any bias of TDs and senators who will sit on the committee carrying out the banking inquiry, according to its chairman, Labour’s Ciarán Lynch.

The Oireachtas banking inquiry will "inevitably descend into a show trial", Shane Ross has warned.

THE long-awaited banking inquiry is at the centre of a political row before it even gets under way, with Fianna Fáil warning that the Government wants to keep its scope as narrow as possible for “political advantage”.

Banking probe chief Ciarán Lynch emerged victorious in a bitter Dáil turf war to run the high profile inquiry, but now faces a fresh fight to prove he is no Government stooge.

It was no accident that the banking inquiry — already well behind schedule and six years on from the banking collapse — was announced by Government yesterday with such haste.

Over the past few days, politicians and regulators have reassured angry and bruised taxpayers that another bank meltdown will never happen again.

A broad and effective banking inquiry will go a long way to restoring confidence in the financial regulatory system and in Irish public affairs in general, according to the governor of the Central Bank, Patrick Honohan.

The public grilling of key players involved in the fateful bank guarantee that resulted in costs of €64bn to the Irish people will get underway by October.