THE smoking gun has been found in the debris of Anglo Irish Bank.

AS the final cost of the Anglo Irish Bank bailout is set to be revealed later today AIB has been warned it may have to raise more than the original figure of €7.4 billion in fresh funding to strengthen its capital base.

Finance Minister Brian Lenihan tonight said he was willing to extend the remit of the banking inquiry to cover the nationalisation of Anglo Irish Bank.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen tonight faced demands to allow Government officials to give evidence to a parliamentary watchdog after he agreed to be questioned over his role in the banking crisis.

FINANCE MINISTER Brian Lenihan is likely to meet with opposition parties early next week to examine how to proceed with the planned formal investigation into the Irish banking crisis in the most cost-effective and efficient manner.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen has defended the Government's decision to exclude an examination of past policy failures from the official inquiry into the banking crash.

THE head of the Central Bank Patrick Honohan has questioned the need for the Government’s planned Commission of Investigation into the banking crisis.

Finance Minister Brian Lenihan today insisted the Government had a mandate to see out its full term in office, saying they have a job to finish.

Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan is today insisting that the Government has a mandate to continue, despite an opinion poll in which half of the people surveyed said they wanted a General Election.

THE establishment of an independent economic council to advise on future financial projections and fiscal policy, has been proposed by two international banking experts.

THE international factors which contributed to the Irish banking crisis should not be ignored although Government tax breaks for the property sector were also a key element, according to one of the authors of a report on the financial crash.

A PROBE into possible share manipulation as Anglo Irish Bank slid into crisis was demanded last night after investigators into the financial slump appeared before a Dáil committee.

Ireland is not financially ruined and can look forward to economic growth again in the coming years, international experts said today.

The author of one of the reports into Ireland's banking crisis has said he was surprised by the amount and scale of the tax incentives offered by the Government in the run up to the banking crash.

The authors of one of the reports into the banking crisis says the response here has been better than in other countries and Ireland is "not ruined".

The authors of one of the banking reports says "everybody missed" the signs even in 2006 that a soft landing of the property bubble was no longer possible here.

The findings of the recent banking reports, which criticised the Government, will come under scrutiny again today.

A SENIOR government minister conceded that Taoiseach Brian Cowen can take the blame for leading the country into the current economic crisis.

SO, the net tightens. The first two reports into our brush with bankruptcy – ongoing – are direct enough to suggest a new, uncompromised relationship between the Central Bank, Government and banks.

Fianna Fáil TDs were tonight accused of casting doubts over the Taoiseach's leadership by delaying a no confidence vote over damning assessments of his big spending budgets ahead of Ireland's economic nosedive.

The Government will table a motion of full confidence in Taoiseach Brian Cowen next week after two highly critical reports gave a damning indictment of his handling of the economy while Finance Minister.

Fine Gael has tabled a motion of no confidence in Taoiseach Brian Cowen.

Finance Minister Brian Lenihan has said the Taoiseach cannot bear sole responsiblilty for the failures of successive administrations that led to the banking crisis.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny is to propose a motion of no confidence in the Taoiseach in the Dáil later this morning, in light of the details of two reports into Ireland's banking crisis, published yesterday.

BRIAN COWEN is seeking to prevent the banking inquiry from examining the policies he implemented as Finance Minister which added “fuel to the fire” and helped stoke the crisis in the sector.

THE governor of the Central Bank, Patrick Honohan, has placed the burden of blame for the catastrophic collapse of the Irish banks on the regulatory system in his report into the crisis.

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen said he “deeply regrets” the problems facing the country as a result of the property crash and financial crisis but did not apologise and insisted nobody saw it coming.

THE Taoiseach was deeply implicated in the collapse of the economy, the banking reports conclude.

IRELAND’S regulators who oversaw the banking collapse have been described as timid and helped bring the financial sector to its knees.

WHEN Brian Cowen delivered a major speech running to more than 7,000 words on the causes of the banking crisis last month, the opposition smelled a rat.

GOVERNMENT decisions and tax policies that fuelled the boom and contributed to the financial crisis will not be examined as part of the banking inquiry.

BLAME for the banking crisis has been flung at Taoiseach Brian Cowen, by opposition parties who said the independent banking reports undermine the Government’s policy defences.

Opposition parties say the Taoiseach must be held accountable for his role in the financial crisis, as today outlined in two reports.

Weak governance, insufficient supervision and Government budgets designed to win over the electorate were tonight blamed for Ireland’s banking crisis by two leading economists.

The two reports into the banking crisis have concluded that Brian Cowen's 2007 Budget added markedly to the overheating of the economy, and that Mr Cowen introduced excessive government spending.

Fine Gael has said that the two reports into the financial crisis expected to be published later today will have implications for the political future of Taoiseach Brian Cowen.

Two separate reports into the banking crisis are expected to be published today.

THE Government is bracing itself for a torrent of blame as it publishes two reports into the banking crisis, one of which is expected to criticise Brian Cowen’s budgetary policy during the boom.

Two separate reports into the banking crisis are expected to be published tomorrow after being examined at a special meeting of the Cabinet.

The Cabinet has been briefed on the contents of two reports into the banking crisis, which are understood to heavily criticise Brian Cowen's budgets during the boom.

The Finance Minister Brian Lenihan will today shed light on the circumstances surrounding the Irish banking crisis, when he brings two reports on the matter to Cabinet.

THE Government should be able to take some steps on foot of the two reports into the banking crisis that has cost taxpayers more than €72 billion to date, Finance Minister Brian Lenihan has indicated.

Two major reports on the causes of Ireland's banking collapse could be released by the government this week.

THE two international experts appointed to carry out one of the preliminary inquiries into the banking crisis will hold talks next week with officials of the Central Bank, the Financial Regulator and some of the country’s research institutions as their probe into the banking collapse gets under way.