Cowen’s choice: Sell the bailout to the people or risk being pushed out

BEFORE the dawn comes the darkest hour. This week’s choreography between the Minister for Finance, Central Bank governor and Financial Regulator seeks to reconstruct the Irish banking system. We have to hope it works. Don’t be too fearful about the enormous sums being injected into AIB and Bank of Ireland.

The British treasury has invested £117 billion into their banks and put in place a programme of insurance of toxic bank assets. Their chancellor, Alistair Darling, has revised downward the net cost of this to the British taxpayer from £50 billion to £6 billion of net losses.

Gordon Brown’s government has taken an 84% stake in Royal Bank of Scotland and 43% in Lloyds’ banking group. Both the US and European governments are much further down the road than us in bank reforms.