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OPINION:With their response to the bank crisis, Cowen and Lenihan risk bringing the country to the edge of an economic and social catastrophe, writes VINCENT BROWNE.

BRIAN LENIHAN on RTÉ television’s The Week in Politics, on Sunday night, was asked if the Government knew the extent of the bad debts of the banks the Government was bailing out. The following is his reply: “We have done a detailed assessment both from the point of view of auctioneering and valuation, as well as from the point of view of an assessment of the loans themselves. But we will of course do a due diligence, if we conclude the capitalisation, as any investor would and that will give us the final picture in relation to the banks.”