ANGLO IRISH Bank should be wound down within a six-year timeframe, Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said yesterday.
He said there needed to be a “finality and certainty” brought to the Anglo situation because the “lack of certainty” was contributing to the State’s economic problems.
Speaking in Dublin at the launch of a Labour policy document on sport, Mr Gilmore said what was “killing” the country was the sense that there was no end to the Anglo problem.
“There’s no end to it in terms of time, and there’s no end to it in terms of cost . . . that is what is contributing to the uncertainty about the bank itself, Irish banking and the Irish economy.”
Mr Gilmore said Government policy regarding the bank was increasing the cost to the taxpayer and instead it should “set an objective to wind down Anglo over a period of time and to give an indicative timescale for that”.
Labour estimated the wind-down of the bank within five or six years would cost the State €4 billion to €5 billion less than the Government’s approach.
The Government appeared to favour an orderly wind-down over a lengthy period following this week’s Cabinet meeting.
Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan will travel to Brussels for a meeting of EU finance ministers on Monday, and the issue of Anglo is expected to feature in discussions. A final decision on the fate of the bank will depend on the view taken by the European Commission and the European Central Bank on the issue.
Speaking at an event in Dublin yesterday, Minister for Health Mary Harney said the bank would have to be wound down in the “appropriate way”.
Ms Harney said she was not in a position to say whether the wind-down would be less than 10 years. “It’s under discussion with the ECB and the Central Bank.”
Meanwhile, Mr Gilmore also denied weekend speculation that Labour would be prepared to go into coalition with Fianna Fáil after the next election should Taoiseach Brian Cowen step aside as leader. He said Labour would not put Fianna Fáil back into power irrespective of who was leading the party.
His party would not join Fianna Fáil in “any shape or form”.
