Cowen ‘must speak to gardaí’ about Anglo call

FINE GAEL yesterday said Taoiseach Brian Cowen must speak to gardaí about a controversial phone discussion with Anglo Irish Bank boss Sean FitzPatrick in March 2008 to aid any possible criminal investigation.

Denying it was a smear campaign against the former Fianna Fáil leader, Fine Gael’s justice spokesman Alan Shatter said it was “bizarre” that the details of that discussion had not yet been provided to gardaí probing the goings-on at Anglo.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin dismissed the suggestion, but Mr Shatter said the investigation into what happened at Anglo had been going on for years and that “no investigation should have taken this long”.