Fresh revelations in the Anglo Tapes scandal show that the Brian Cowen led government refused to shut down Anglo Irish Bank despite warnings from the government’s own external advisers, Merril Lynch.
In the latest batch of tapes published by the Irish Independent today, former CEO David Drumm is heard telling colleague John Bowe that Merril Lynch had turned against them and branded the troubled bank a basket case.
The conversations took place just days before David Drumm lost his job and the bank was nationalised at a cost of 30 billion euro to the Irish taxpayer.
In this excerpt Mr Drumm describes Merril Lynch as having turned against Anglo but that former Fine Gael leader and ex-finance minister Alan Dukes, who had just been appointed as public-interest director at Anglo had apparently told him that the Government had decided to keep the bank going:
