One More Thing:Could it be that the Sean Fitzpatrick who railed against the heavy hand of regulation and "corporate McCarthyism" last week at the Experian annual business lunch is the same Sean Fitzpatrick who called for higher standards in the banking sector in 2000?

Surely the Sean Fitzpatrick who said back then that the poor public perception of the industry was justified, and that "it will take time and the commitment of everybody involved in banking in Ireland to re-establish the reputation to which we aspire", is not the same man who last week spoke of an "apparent presumption of guilt" in the current regulatory structure and a general suspicion of entrepreneurs?

Funnily enough, it is the same man. So what has happened to turn a contrite incoming president of the Irish Bankers' Federation into an unapologetic cheerleader for freebooting private enterprise?

We can only speculate, but given that in Fitzpatrick's world the credit for the country's economic revival rests solidly with the country's entrepreneurial classes, the time for sackcloth and ashes is well and truly over.