A cabinet minister has played down the impact of evidence to the Banking Inquiry being made public, days ahead of schedule.

Kevin Cardiff isn't due to appear before the inquiry until Thursday - but key parts of his evidence appeared in yesterday's Sunday Business Post.

Mr Cardiff is said to have submitted over 380 pages of evidence to the inquiry ahead of his appearance, detailing at length his interactions with bankers and his experiences of the night of September 29, 2008 when the Bank Guarantee was agreed.

He says there had been no major discussion of a blanket-style guarantee before the night itself - and claims that banks themselves approached the government with a draft of how any guarantee should look. 

This is in contrast with the evidence given by the bankers who were in Government Buildings on that night - who say they did not explicitly ask for a blanket guarantee, and only wanted a limited form of assistance on the premise that Anglo Irish Bank would default and potentially collapse that week.

Our political correspondent Gavan Reilly has been looking at Mr Cardiff's evidence - and where it clashes with what the inquiry's already been told: