Lenihan insists State not planning to wind down Anglo Irish

BRIAN LENIHAN last night insisted the Government was not planning to wind-down scandal-hit nationalised bank Anglo Irish.

With a sweeping strategic review on the institution’s future set to go before its board of directors, the finance minister stressed stabilising the bank must be the priority.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny criticised the move and increased pressure on the Government to scrap the bank. He said this would protect taxpayers’ money.

Mr Kenny said that Anglo Irish would cost the equivalent of €2,500 by every family in the country as part of its bail-out and in return the institution had the potential to saddle the State with a bad loan book of €15 billion. He said an “orderly” wind-up was the only realistic option.

However, government sources stressed that any wind-down announcement would have a devastating impact on the €64bn held in the bank’s deposits.

Dismissing claims the bank could be wound down in an “orderly” fashion, they said legal requirements would mean large chunks of that money having to be withdrawn once it became known the institution would eventually cease.

The row escalated as it was reported that former Bank of Ireland chief executive Brian Goggin was paid €3m during his last year at the institution. This included a €1.4m payment “in lieu of notice”.

Mr Goggin achieved notoriety in March when he defended high levels of pay at the bank, stressing he was paid “less than €2m” in the year to March.

The bank paid its directors a total of €8.6m in the year to March 2009, with chairman Richard Burrows seeing his salary drop only marginally from €512,000 a year to €500,000 a year.