Do the emergency powers given to the minister go too far?

Emergency powers granted to liquidate Anglo’s bad debt could be dangerous, claim TDs, but have been defended as necessary to protect the use of public funds.

Finance Minister Michael Noonan even went as far as to tell the Seanad during an all-night debate on Anglo — now known as the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) — that he had to act to block “avenues of attack” on the Irish taxpayer.

We may never know what these supposed “scares” were or where they were coming from. There were worries about “substantial leaks” to the media impacting on the assets of IBRC. There were others possibly waiting to get to the courts in Ireland, London and the US to get their hands on those assets, the minister told senators.