Today’s extension of the time and scope of the bank guarantee shows that nearly two years after our banking crisis hit, we are still no closer to a resolution.
Irish banks continue to limp along on life support at a time when most countries have managed to put their banking woes behind them.

The banks and the state are now almost indistinguishable from the point of view of the markets. Irish bond yields crashed through 6% today, leaving Ireland with only a tenuous grasp of its own economic sovereignty. Is this the price to be paid for Fianna Fáil’s disastrous decision to give the banks a blanket guarantee?

Brian Cowen and Brian Lenihan must come clean with the Irish people about the true extent of the information they had on the night of the bank guarantee. If they knew Anglo Irish Bank was insolvent, but guaranteed its debts anyway, they will have knowingly put Ireland in danger of being unable to meet its financial commitments. That decision alone will cost the country somewhere between €25bn and €35bn.