Despite our predilection to blame the banks for everything bad, the reality is that, while our financial institutions were mostly responsible for our economic crash, they were by no means the only transgressors.

Finance Minister Michael Noonan has warned the banks they must be prepared to hand over tapes of internal conversations regarding the bank guarantee and bailout.

RETIRED broadcaster Gay Byrne said he and others who lost money when bank shares collapsed need a sacrificial lamb to appease their anger. Those to blame “should be imprisoned”.

The chairman of the Oireachtas inquiry into the CIE mini-CTC signalling system has admitted that some of those asked to comply with the investigation could launch legal challenges.