A special Cabinet meeting was held today to consider two reports into the banking crisis, which are understood to be critical of the regulatory authorities, and of Government budgetary strategy.
The Labour Party has said the Taoiseach's reaction to the reports will reveal a lot about his capacity to be a national rather than just a party leader.
The two reports into the banking crisis were drawn up by the Governor of the Central Bank, Patrick Honohan, and by international banking experts Klaus Regling and Max Watson.
They will be published in the next few days, and will form the basis for an inquiry which will be established by the end of this month and report by the end of this year.
It is expected that the reports will be severely critical of the role of the Central Bank and of the Financial Regulator in overseeing the financial system.
It is understood that there will also be criticism of the Government's budgetary strategy in the run-up to the crisis, as well as questions about the blanket guarantee of the banks' liabilities put in place in September 2008, and whether subordinated debt should have been included.
Today, Labour's finance spokesperson Joan Burton said the Taoiseach's had been defensive about his role to date. If that continued, she claimed, it would show he was unable to learn the lessons of past mistakes, and was therefore unworthy of office as Taoiseach.
