The people involved in deciding the bank guarantee were told that the European Central Bank would not allow any Irish banks to collapse.

That's according to the top civil servant at the Department of Finance, on the night the guarantee was signed off.

David Doyle's told the Banking Inquiry that the former finance minister Brian Lenihan had argued strongly for Anglo Irish Bank to be nationalised instead of being included in the guarantee.

But he says the Governor of the Central Bank, John Hurley, had a clear message from the ECB who said no bank could be allowed to fall: