Banks not closely monitored before crash, inquiry told

Ireland effectively told the European Commission "don't bother us" when it was warned the economy was at grave risk of overheating seven years before its eventual nosedive, a top EC chief has said.

Marco Buti, the EC's director general for economic and financial affairs, said it was a mistake for the Irish Government to snub an unprecedented intervention in 2001 over fears about the direction Dublin was heading.