Banking reports - Good work undermined by delays

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.

Central Bank governor Prof Patrick Honohan has indicted politicians, bankers and regulators. He lays the blame for our economic collapse at the feet of those who betrayed the great powers and privileges entrusted to them. And they are all Irish.

Coming just weeks after Financial Regulator Matthew Elderfield confronted Quinn Direct, despite great political pressures, Prof Honohan, along with Klaus Regling and Max Watson, have published reports that hopefully indicate a new way of doing things. This unusual directness, in Irish terms at least, this independence of action, may be the silver lining in the cloud that hangs over us all.