Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

I knew exactly when they were going over to meet with the Minister, having previously met with officials in various institutions. I met them. I am quite sure people from Fine Gael met them also. We were briefed that this was happening. This is putting us back into the 19th century.

This is what the Minister had to say in the Financial Times, which reports:

The failure of Anglo Irish Bank, the lender at the centre of the country's financial crisis would, "bring down Ireland" the country's finance minister said, as he vowed the country would stand behind the institution. Doing this will raise the cost of its taxpayer-funded banking bailout up to €35 billion.

That is the figure the Minister gave to the Financial Times yesterday.

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