Muammar Gaddafi pulled out of €1.4bn Bank of Ireland deal

Former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi met Irish government officials in late 2010 about a potential €1.4bn Bank of Ireland investment — but pulled out because he did not feel “comfortable” with our control of the financial crisis.

The bizarre banking inquiry twist was revealed yesterday as an Irish finance group was accused of lobbying to get Germany’s worst-hit firm included in the guarantee and met with bank risk officers to discuss bird flu — not the economic crisis — in 2007.

Speaking to the inquiry, John Corrigan, the former CEO of the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) confirmed the secret December 2010 Libya meeting. Mr Corrigan, who was CEO from 2009 to earlier this year and on Ireland’s troika negotiation team, said on landing in the now war-ravaged north African nation’s capital of Tripoli, officials met the Libyan investment authority.