Bank guarantee politics ‘astonishing’

A leading academic has described as astonishing the politics that led to the 2008 bank guarantee which covered the country’s six biggest financial institutions.

The professor of finance at Boston College, Ed Kane, said that a blanket guarantee — such as that extended here,with an estimated cost to the taxpayer of €40bn to date — is the easiest option politically and administratively for authorities to take. But he said is is elitist and punishes ordinary citizens.

Prof Kane said the Government should have secured a better deal for the Irish people but, as a small country, our representatives didn’t have the political clout to do so.