Brian Cowen has admitted he only met the Financial Regulator twice during his four years as Minister for Finance.

That's despite his admission that he met Anglo Irish Bank's chairman Sean Fitzpatrick twice within three months in 2008.

Mr Cowen made the admission while giving evidence at the Oireachtas Banking Inquiry this evening.

But he said it was more common to meet the chairmen of state agencies instead of chief executives - and he was kept up to speed with everything it did:

Cowen wrapped up his evidence to the Banking Inquiry with a parting shot as his former rivals in the Dáil.

The former Taoiseach lashed out at both Enda Kenny and Eamon Gilmore for comments they have made about his time in office.

Mr Cowen said it was totally untrue for Enda Kenny to claim that Fianna Fáil, Anglo Irish Bank and developers were part of an "axis of collusion" to destroy the Irish economy.

And he also wants comments by Eamon Gilmore, who accused him of "economic treason", stricken from the Dáíl record:

The former Taoiseach also told the Banking Inquiry that while there were 'talks about talks' in early November 2010, these were not formal discussions about entering a programme.

Mr Cowen insisted that Ireland was bounced into the bailout, while he had believed the public finances were under control and that the then Government's four year plan was a viable way forward.

Brian Cowen said repeated denials at the time by members of the Cabinet can't be classified as mis-information:

He denied over-ruling Brian Lenihan on the night of the bank guarantee and defended the guarantee itself, saying he believes it was the 'least worst option'.

"It has to be emphasised that no decision was risk-free; there was no one good or right option that would guarantee a solution to the problem" he said.

"It was about trying to pick the least worst option and make sure that if we had only one go at trying to stabilise the situation that it would have every prospect of doing so."

"Trying to forecast where all of this would go next was extremely difficult to predict" he added.

He also outlined details of the Troika bailout and admitted he under-estimated the impact of the "IMF coming to town" element for talks, but again insists the government made the best decisions it could at the time.

On the guarantee, he outlined that he did not favour nationalising Anglo on the night - as it would mean taking on the liabilities forever, rather than for the two years as the eventual guarantee intended.

Mr Cowen told the Banking Inquiry that Brian Lenihan wanted to nationalise Anglo Irish Bank instead of guaranteeing it.

But he said the two men had a civil conservation on the night, where Mr Cowen outlined his concerns about taking over Anglo.

Away from the inquiry, Former Minister Mary O'Rourke said there's no point in recalling Jean-Claude Trichet to appear before the banking inquiry, describing his as a "wily little Frenchman."

The Former president of the European Central Bank appeared at the inquiry in April.

In his evidence he rejected a claim that the ECB blackmailed Ireland into entering the Troika bailout, by threatening to cut off credit to the country in a letter to late former minister for finance Brian Lenihan in November 2010.

Mary O'Rourke said there's no value in hearing from him again: