The banking inquiry's been told that the construction sector was a "tumour" on the Irish economy.

Professor John FitzGerald says the sector grew so big that it made it more difficult for other areas to expand.

He's giving evidence on the Irish and EU policies that helped to lead to the financial collapse.

He says Ireland stands alone in how big its construction sector became:

Professor FitzGerald also admitting his own failings, and those of the ESRI, in failing to diagnose the extent of the problems that would arise from the banking crash.

He was asked by Fine Gael's Kieran O'Donnell about a report produced by the think-tank shortly before the property market collapsed, and why the report did not echo the fears raised at that time by UCD economist Morgan Kelly.

Sinn Féin's Pearse Doherty asked Professor FitzGerald if he still believed the 'fundamentals' of the Irish economy were 'sound', as he had claimed in the immediate run-up to the crisis: