Former taoiseach Brian Cowen has said he regrets that a quarter of a million people lost their jobs during the recession.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has predicted former taoisigh will willingly participate in a parliamentary inquiry into the banking collapse.

A second set of secretly-recorded conversations of former Anglo Irish Bank chiefs has been sent to the Garda fraud squad.

The Governor of the Central Bank has insisted there is no smoking gun in controversial taped conversations of former Anglo Irish Bank executives to suggest criminality.

SIPTU president Jack O'Connor has told the union's annual conference that the Government has set the stage for major confrontation by launching a savage assault on workers and public services.