THE TAOISEACH denied the Department of Finance had been involved in “doctoring” Anglo Irish Bank documentation.

Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said it had been claimed that the department had told the then bank chairman not to be too negative in a letter to shareholders about its 2008 annual report which was published after it was nationalised in early 2009.

The then chairman, according to a Sunday Times report, was also told by the department that he should not refer to emergency funding, said Mr Gilmore.

He challenged the Taoiseach to say if the department drafted a less negative letter to go with the 2008 report. “Second, can he justify why the Government was encouraging and directing the bank to, in effect, issue false information about the state of its finances and its requirement for additional funding?”

Brian Cowen said that to ascribe that sort of motivation to the department’s comments was “a conspiracy theory too far”. The chairman’s statement, he added, was finalised to reflect his views and published with the annual report. His statement was his own and reflected his views.

Pressed further by the Labour leader, Mr Cowen said: “Deputy Gilmore has just made certain points about ‘doctoring’ and all the rest of it. There is no question of that.”

He said that where it was a nationalised bank, the chairman’s statement and the draft accounts were referred to the department for comment, which was the form, and they were commented on.

Mr Cowen added that the paramount concern of the department and, indeed, the Government, was to do everything possible to protect the stability of the entire banking system at a time of great fragility.

It was important that any statement relating to liquidity in any bank, particularly a nationalised bank, should take into account the potential impact on the broader financial system and ultimately on the entire economy.