Banking Inquiry: Regrets? None, absolutely nein, zero, zip, zilch...

Anybody expecting Charlie McCreevy to enter the banking inquiry armed with sackcloth and ashes would have been a long time waiting.

Instead, he burst in on the unsuspecting committee members with guns blazing. Regrets? He has none. Absolutely nein. Zero, zip, zilch. He did everything correctly. He hinted that he’s too polite to point out the bleedin’ obvious — that he was pure brilliant. He dragged the country, kicking and screaming into prosperity, and he was gone down the road when things began to turn sour.

McCreevy didn’t just arrive in to defend his record. He was there to blow out of the water all those who had fingered him as one of the main culprits of the bubble that begat the bust. He began by reeling off an array of dizzying statistics that showed how his tenure as Minister for Finance was, well, one of the greatest known to the State.