Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

It was effectively a financial three card trick, the dig out to beat all dig outs. Why would it not do so? There was no risk involved for the bank, because the taxpayer was taking the risk. It could lend Anglo Irish Bank billions of euro. It was our money and if it went wrong, we would pick it up. The Government could impose some more levies on working people to get it back.

It appears the banks can lend thousands of millions of euro to each other, but at the same time they cannot extend several thousand euro to viable businesses to keep going.

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