Cowen: I didn’t know Anglo was facing insolvency

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen last night denied he knew Anglo Irish Bank was facing insolvency when he threw it a financial lifeline by including it in the blanket guarantee.

Labour’s Eamon Gilmore told the Dáil he found Mr Cowen’s version of events “strange” as Government officials had been raising Anglo’s insolvency in the run-up to the move.

“Did the Taoiseach never raise the question of Anglo Irish Bank’s solvency? That seems strange. It is very strange that in circumstances where senior Government officials were talking about solvency issues in Anglo Irish Bank, where that bank had gone to Bank of Ireland and said it faced insolvency and where Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Bank people came rushing down to Government Buildings in crisis mode, that they would not have shared that information with the Taoiseach,” the Labour leader told TDs.