Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 14 May 2015

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis

Nexus Phase

Mr. Richard Burrows:

That's right. If I just go back to the sequence of events that evening, the four of us went to Government Buildings and we were eventually shown in to meet with the Taoiseach, the Minister for Finance and quite a number of other people were there, I can't remember all the names. And I led on behalf of the four of us, to explain to the Taoiseach and the other members who were present, the reason for seeking the meeting, which was to make sure that they were fully aware of the severity of the situation that could unfold the following morning, and the impact that that could have on the banking situation at large. And then my other colleagues on that visit made their own interventions with Government, at which point we were then invited to go into an ante-room, whilst the Taoiseach and Minister and the others present conferred, and eventually we were brought back in to meet with the Taoiseach, and at that point Mr. Hurley, who was present, asked if Anglo Irish's default could be covered by Bank of Ireland and AIB providing liquidity in the form of €10 million, €10 billion, the following morning. Our response to that, and I think it was Brian Goggin who articulated this, was to say that we would be prepared to go away and consider that, but that, given the severity of the situation, given the difficulties which we were all facing, we would need to be guaranteed by Government on that particular loan - not just guaranteed about the loan, but guaranteed that we would actually get the cash back too, after a specific period of time.

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