The governor of the Central Bank Patrick Honohan said investors will be "scrambling" to support the country's banks after they exit the current financial crisis.
Speaking at an event in Dublin today, Mr Honohan said he anticipates capital being injected into the banking system in 2010, but did not elaborate on where he expects it to come from.
"The whole process of National Asset Management Agency purchases, careful evaluation of the capital needs of banks, capital injections, I expect that to roll out over the next number of months," he said.
The setting up of Nama, the Government's bad bank to take toxic property loans from the country's lenders at a discount, will leave Bank of Ireland and AIB needing capital, and the Government has said it's "committed" to supporting them.
"Irish banks are going to leave this situation well capitaliaed," said Mr Honohan, who is also a member of the European Central Bank Governing Council.
He said private capital would be "scrambling" to get into Irish banks in due course, because they will be so strong.
Extra reserves of about €30 billion would have shielded Irish banks from the global credit freeze, the drying up of credit on international money markets and surging bad debts, Mr Honohan said.
Bank of Ireland Plc fell 1.8 per cent to €1.61 by 1.30pm in Dublin, while AIB fell 2.2 per cent to €1.53.
Bloomberg