Anglo 'Lazarus' claim rejected

The Department of Finance has hit back at media reports that it was trying to revive Anglo Irish Bank.

Earlier this week, the Financial Times carried an editorial claiming the Government had learned little from the financial crisis.

"Irish leaders are prolonging the uncertainty in the hope that zombie banks will, Lazarus-like, come back to life," it wrote.

It said it was time to let the bank losses fall "on unsecured creditors once shareholders are wiped out".

In a letter to the Financial Times, the department's press officer Eoin Dorgan said the claim that the Government was trying to bring Anglo back to life was not true.

"This is not in accordance with the facts," he wrote. "Last week the Government decided that Anglo Irish's loan book will be worked out over time in an asset recovery bank."

Mr Dorgan also criticised the figures used in the article, which claimed the balance sheet of the six domestically owned banks was €776 billion at the end of June. He said the true figure was €523 billion.