CENTRAL BANK governor Patrick Honohan has clarified comments he made in a television interview, saying he had not intended to give the impression that Anglo Irish Bank failed to disclose promptly the scale of its losses.

Speaking to RTÉ’s Prime Time on Tuesday, Prof Honohan said that when the management at Anglo discovered that the bank was being wound down, they said the bank’s losses would be larger.

“The Anglo people when they discovered, when they realised that there wasn’t going to be an Anglo business going forward, that was a wake-up call and they said, ‘Well look here, the losses here are actually, when we look at it, going to be bigger’,” he said.

The governor was discussing potential loan losses at the banks.

The Central Bank said in a statement: “Governor Honohan would like to clarify that his remarks were not intended to give any impression to the effect that the current board or management of Anglo Irish Bank might not have promptly disclosed the scale of the losses at the bank.”

Following Prof Honohan’s appearance on the programme, Anglo chairman Alan Dukes contacted him and asked for a correction to be issued.

A spokesman for Anglo had no comment to make on the matter.

The Government has injected €29.3 billion into Anglo Irish Bank over the past two years.

The bank received €4 billion in 2009 and a further €8.3 billion in March 2010 when the Minister for Finance said that the bank might require a further €10 billion.

The bailout cost rose to €24 billion last August and €29.3 billion last September with the possibility of this climbing to €34.3 billion if there is no recovery in the property market for 10 years. The increases arose from discounts on loans sold to Nama.