Banks grew ‘too large’ to manage, admits Lenihan

BANKS grew “too large” for a small country like Ireland to manage, Finance Minister Brian Lenihan said yesterday, admitting repairing them “will cost a very definitive amount of money”.

He said the IMF and EU bailout for Ireland will “primarily deal with banks” and he’s confident it will bring a “permanent resolution to our difficulties in this sector”.

The minister said a number of “crunch issues” remain to be resolved in negotiations between Irish officials and the EU/IMF bailout team, who have been in talks for more than a week on a rescue package.