Lessons for Ireland in how Iceland handled aftermath of banking crisis

It wouldn’t happen here, would it? Iceland’s former Prime Minister Geir Haarde was put on trial this week, facing charges relating to his failure to prevent the island nation’s 2008 financial crash, one that has been rivalled only by ours and Greece’s.

He faces up to two years in prison if found guilty.

Haarde, once a finance minister, was prime minister from 2006 to early 2009. He is charged with gross negligence for failing to take proper measures to prepare for a financial crash. He is also accused of failing to rein in banks whose balance sheets grew to around nine times the size of the island’s economy in the years leading up to the crisis.