The Tánaiste has blamed opposition parties for forcing the IBRC inquiry to investigate too much material.

Joan Burton says the enormous workload given to Judge Brian Cregan is the reason his inquiry will take so long to complete.

The Labour leader says it would "make sense" to prioritise the investigation into the sale of SiteServ, which saw IBRC write off €Â€119 million in debts.

But she says the opposition has demanded too much of the inquiry:

Opposition parties say the inquiry should be narrowed, or examine major deals like the sale of SiteServ first.

The SiteServ deal was among six transactions in which the bank wrote off debts or assets worth over €100 million.

Judge Cregan is this afternoon meeting with officials at the Department of the Taoiseach this afternoon, to discuss how the inquiry can be salvaged.

Brian Cregan will meet officials after the Department yesterday published his interim report - outlining a series of legal and practical problems in his investigation.

Those six deals in total saw the bank write off €849 million euro in assets - almost half of the total of €1.9 billion involved in the 38 transactions under Cregan's remit.

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