Masters of the conditional apology should try some genuine remorse

For too long sorry seemed to be the hardest word to utter in Irish public life. But that is no longer the case. The advent of the banking inquiry means no one week seems complete without at least one being uttered along with a public beating of the chest, well more like a gentle palpitating.

The truth is that having waited what seemed like forever for the word “sorry” to be uttered in relation to the spectacular collapse of our economy we have heard it so much recently as to almost render it meaningless.

It seems de rigeur for inquiry witnesses to get it out there in one’s opening statement to the TDs and senators who have been sweltering their way through the days in Committee Room 1 in Leinster House.