Taoiseach Brian Cowen today admitted taxpayers will never get back the €22 billion pumped into Anglo Irish Bank.
His comments sparked fury from the Opposition benches in the Dáil with demands that no more public money be poured into a “black hole”.
Mr Cowen confirmed remarks from the nationalised bank’s chief executive Mike Aynsley last week that the “lion’s share” of the Anglo bailout will “never be seen again”.
“It’s clear that in relation to where shareholders’ funds aren’t sufficient to meet the losses of the bank — and where the taxpayer had to come in to fill those losses — they are the losses being taken on by the taxpayer,” he said.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said Mr Cowen made a personal promise to the Irish people in October 2008 - at the time of the bank guarantee scheme - that they would not be held accountable for the banking bailout.
He questioned why the Government was now borrowing vast sums to pay off Anglo debts while professional shareholders weren’t being asked to share the pain.
“It makes absolutely no sense for the government to continue with the policy of borrowing money to put into a black hole,” he said.
Mr Kenny said €11 billion to be cut from public project spending cuts over the next three years would cost 40,000 jobs. Yet, creating employment was the only way out of the crisis, he said.
“Money could be borrowed for that instead,” the Fine Gael leader insisted.
Criticised for his explanation of the €22 billion losses, Mr Cowen told the Dáil he was not being “smart-alecky”.
The Taoiseach said Government borrowing was about reducing exposure to taxpayers as much as possible.
He vowed the billions of euro in public money poured into both Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Bank would be reclaimed.
“Money will be made back on those investments. Anglo Irish bank is in a totally different category. That money is not going to be returned.”
PA