The former Taoiseach Brian Cowen's opened his evidence to the banking inquiry to say he's sorry for the hardship and distress the policies that had to be introduced to deal with the financial crisis caused.

Mr Cowen says the Government he led dealt with the crisis to the best of its ability.

He's appearing for two days at the inquiry - today will deal with his period as Minister for Finance between 2004 and 2008, and next week will deal with his period as Taoiseach.

In his opening statement this morning he defended the bank guarantee - and launched a robust defence of his record on public spending amid feisty exchanges.

While defending his role as Finance Minister in the years before the crisis, he said with the benefit of hindsight now of course some things should have been done differently. 

And he clashed with Joe Higgins who was accusing him of being a cheerleader for speculators.

Our political correspondent Gavan Reilly filed this report for Today FM's National Lunchtime News: