The French finance minister has backed calls for the ECB to take questions at the Oireachtas Banking Inquiry.

Michel Sapin says the inquiry should be able to hear from anyone who can help Ireland to avoid a repeat of the crash.

Speaking through an interpreter in Dublin this evening, Mr Sapin said he'd like the ECB to co-operate as much as possible:

“Anything that would enable the Irish people to understand what happened would be a good thing,” he said.

“And it would mean that this can feed various proposals to avoid a repetition of these events.”

Earlier Michael Noonan said the ECB should "man up" and take questions at the inquiry, describing its excuses as "a cop-out".