A chara, – On the night of September 30th, 2008, I sat in the public gallery in Dáil Éireann and watched aghast as the overwhelming majority of parliamentarians present voted to support emergency government legislation that proposed providing a State guarantee for all deposits, bonds and debt in six Irish-owned banks.
The following day, while discussing the issue with fifth-year pupils in a Dublin school, some elementary number-crunching conservatively calculated that this disastrous decision would eventually cost the citizens of this country €90 billion.
Almost two-and-a-half years later, following countless billions of taxpayers’ money being incinerated in zombie banks and countless other millions paid to accountancy and legal firms for advice, the Central Bank, the Financial Regulator and the Government of Ireland have finally arrived at a similar figure. – Is mise,
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