On top of their deep rooted denial of responsibility, the Finance Minister is very sick with cancer, the Foreign Minister - now leader of Fianna Fail - had lost a daughter a few weeks before and it was alleged to me that the Taoiseach had taken to wandering around his department asking if anyone - including the porters and cleaners - had any good ideas. Those are the rumours I feel I can report. There are nastier ones.

The ex-Taoiseach Ahern says that his biggest regret is not building the fucking sports stadium he had conceived of as his monument. Oh, and that no-one told him about the upcoming bank problems that had been discussed to death on ET.