Accountancy firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has estimated it will incur legal costs of more than €30.1m in defending a claim for €800m brought against it over its auditing of Quinn Insurance Ltd (QIL).

The vast majority of banks across the world consider their industry to be over-regulated, just a matter of years after the global financial crash sunk economies and left the financial sector in disarray.

Overwhelming positivity over the future of the construction industry is being tempered by a severe lack of finance with almost two-thirds of industry leaders citing it as the biggest impediment to growth.