Cabinet attacked for failing to give certainty to markets

THE Government’s plan to reincarnate Anglo Irish Bank as two separate entities, neither of which will act like a normal bank, has been attacked for failing to give any of the certainty international markets have demanded.

Fine Gael’s finance spokesman, Michael Noonan, said the creation of one deposit bank, and another vehicle for all the nationalised institutions’ loans, brought no clarity on how much of a hit taxpayers will have to take.

He said Finance Minister Brian Lenihan should have made it his mission to spell out every detail of the next phase of the Government’s banking strategy, but this did not happen.