Michael Fingleton's told the Banking Inquiry that he's continuing to pay a personal price for it.
INBS had to be bailed out to the tune of 5.4 billion euro.
But questions to Mr Fingleton about his one million euro bonus in 2008 and a retirement present of an 11,500 euro watch in 2009 have been blocked for legal reasons.
Mr Fingleton expressed regret for the taxpayer bailing out the society, claimed he was still paying a personal price for it, but insisted he stands over the decisions he made in his near 40 years heading up the society.
He's also launched an attack on NAMA saying they totally undervalued loans when taking them from Irish Nationwide and says they will make a profit on them of a billion euro.
He said he did not accept that there were poor lending practices at the society, though he did admit that not all paperwork was always on file for every loan, things were not done perfectly, but no loan was approved without the approval of the board.
