The former head of the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA), Michael Somers, who helped set up the agency during the crisis of the late 1980s, said the banks could do much more during the Covid-19 crisis.

Investors and banks across the world have handed the Irish State €1bn in free money and will effectively pay more again to keep it safe, as global markets continued to reel from the fallout of the Covid-19 outbreak.

The Government has appealed to employers to pay workers their normal wages if staff have to self-isolate, or become ill from coronavirus.

The government has been accused of “misusing” data protection rules and of “deception” in refusing to name lawyers paid over €7m to fight the EU's illegal state aid Apple tax case against Ireland.

We take a trip down memory lane and check out what happened on this day in years gone by by looking back at some Irish Examiner front pages and highlighting other events which went down in history across the world.

Even though it’s more than a decade since Bertie Ahern harrumphed his infamous advice — “the boom is getting boomier” — the consequences of the madness epitomised by that phrase, and the “soft landings” and “naysayers” slapdowns too, remain chilling, almost as chilling as the idea that a person in his position could so misjudge reality.

The size of the national debt may no longer be a constraint for Government spending as the world enters a “new era” of permanently low borrowing costs, leading economist Austin Hughes has said.

Ireland has paid €60bn interest on its National Debt over the last 10 years.

Confidence levels amongst Irish SMEs have slumped to a record low, although firms based in Munster are the most optimistic, according to a survey.

The National Treasury Management Agency has appointed EY to carry out an external review of the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland.

The National Treasury Management Agency has invested disputed taxes collected from Apple in low risk, highly rated euro- dominated fixed income securities, mainly short- to medium-term sovereign and quasi-sovereign bonds, it said in its annual report.

John Finn, MD of Treasury Solutions Ltd, says that he is concerned that Ireland has not learned the lessons of a decade ago and if Ireland was one of the companies that Treasury Solutions has advised in its debt management and financing, he would urge prudent investment management, sound evaluation of capital investment opportunities and the establishment of solid, robust borrowing arrangements.

The Government has been accused of making a "charade" of its climate change promises after it emerged it has spent more than €86m to date in buying itself out of international environmental targets.

Cabinet will next week agree a special Brexit package for hundreds of millions of euros to protect incomes, jobs, and exports, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has confirmed.

The State has, to date, paid €7.1m — including Vat — in fees to lawyers and experts in relation to the European Commission’s €13bn ruling on state aid to tech giant, Apple.

According to the latest figures provided by the Department of Finance, legal firm, William Fry has received €3.1m in fees over the past five years concerning its work on the case.

So that’s Wednesday nearly wrapped up. Here’s some of the stories we published on irishexaminer.com today which we hope will help you make sense of it all this evening.

Government spending agencies have been quizzed about the massive cost overruns in the planned build for the national children's hospital as pressure mounts to explain the €1.5bn project spend.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu), the umbrella body for unions across Ireland, has warned of “a catastrophe” if the UK crashes out of the EU, while the Government’s National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) said Irish bonds have already been affected by concerns over a no deal Brexit.