How the Government decided

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen, sat down at midnight, Tokyo time, to chair a cabinet meeting over the phone to Dublin when the final decision on the first nationalisation of an Irish bank was made.

He would have been aware before he left for Japan on Monday that such a situation might arise during the week.

Ever since the re-capitalisation of three Irish banks was announced in the days before Christmas, the Government had been “closely monitoring” the situation at Anglo Irish Bank.