‘Lenihan felt Anglo should be left out’

Former finance minister Brian Lenihan was “very strongly” of the view Anglo Irish Bank should be nationalised and left out of the €440bn blanket bank guarantee, before a crunch private “chat” with then- taoiseach Brian Cowen caused a dramatic change of mind.

The situation was confirmed by the Department of Finance’s secretary general at the time of the economic crash, David Doyle, at the banking inquiry yesterday.

Speaking to the cross-party group after similar claims were made in the leaked witness statement from his replacement Kevin Cardiff – who is due to attend this morning – Mr Doyle said Mr Lenihan was “very strongly of the view Anglo should be nationalised” and not included in any guarantee on the night it was drawn up.