Department told €1.5bn would save Anglo Irish

ANGLO IRISH BANK chiefs told the Department of Finance it would cost just €1.5 billion to save the company two days before the 2008 Government bailout which ultimately led to the facility’s nationalisation.

Correspondence obtained by Labour finance spokeswoman Joan Burton shows that, in the lead-up to the controversial re-capitalisation scheme, Anglo Irish officials wrongly assured Government that foreign investors would take stakes in the bank if the state underwrote the process.

As part of the claims, former executives David Drumm and Seán FitzPatrick and then financial director, Willie McAteer, said there were signs of interest from European and US investors.