Banks’ rescue - Consultants out by €48bn

You would not have to be Ben Bernanke, Christine Lagarde or even Barney Curley to realise that there was, during the darkest moments of our economic crisis, a lot of freeform, off-the-cuff advice offered to Government by very expensive consultancy firms.

However, the revelation that premiership players Merrill Lynch, on November 18, 2008, concluded that it would cost €16.4bn to save Ireland’s banks is well beyond anything even Alice in Wonderland author Lewis Carroll might have imagined.

They were out by a factor of four — our banks’ bill hovers around €64bn. Nevertheless, they were paid €7.3m for banking advice. That kind of performance in nearly every other sphere would have consequences but undoubtedly Merrill Lynch will say their advice was based on figures supplied by the banks and Government officials. Like the rest of us they were duped — but better rewarded by far. Golden circle indeed.