So Bertie had no responsibility for regulation - there’s a puzzle for Katie

Does Bertie Ahern really expect us to believe that he wasn’t fully aware of the unhealthy relationship he built between developers and the banking industry? asks Fergus Finlay

was discussing one of the mysteries of life with my grand-daughter Katie. She’s wise beyond her age (which is five), and spends a lot of time thinking about stuff. But some things confound her, like the different ways her brothers behave. She explained how her older brother does things one way, and her younger brother is entirely different. Then she spread her hands wide, gazed up at me with her huge green eyes, and said “what’s that all about, grandad”?

Sometimes, of course, life is just a puzzle, and grandads never have all the answers. I used to pretend I did, because when my eldest grandson was a littler lad, he had a sweater (I won’t tell you who gave it to him) that said “Daddy knows a lot, but grandad knows everything”. Sadly, there are things that this grandad will never understand.