Minister for Finance Michael Noonan questioned whether Europe's rescue fund was best placed to run Irish banks, signalling a softening in a drive to recover capital injected into the banks.

After the June 29th pledge by EU leaders to break the link between governments and banks, Mr Noonan had said he might seek to sell stakes in Ireland's banks to the ESM to get back some of almost €30 billion spent on saving them. "There's a question, do you think a fund in Europe that is designed as a rescue fund are really the best people to run an Irish bank?" he told the Dáil Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform . He said the fund had no experience in running a bank. - (Bloomberg)