Irish government facing growing pressure to act on 'draining' Anglo

Ireland's government signalled yesterday that gradually winding down Anglo Irish Bank could be an option as political pressure mounts on Taoiseach Brian Cowen to deal with a national millstone.

Propping up Anglo Irish left Ireland with the biggest budget deficit in the European Union last year and with the costs continuing to climb and no final bill in sight, the premium investors demand to hold ten-year Irish bonds rather than Bunds neared record highs again yesterday.

Until recently, ministers' preference for Anglo was to split it into "good" and "bad" banks, with managers proposing the good unit took assets worth €10-15 billion (8.2bn-12.3bn) while the rest are split between its own "bad bank" and the state's broader scheme.

But the Green Party said it wanted the lender - Ireland's third-biggest listed bank before it was saved from collapse by nationalisation last year - wound down slowly.

"What we are not saying is that there can be an immediate shutdown of Anglo, that is still by far the most expensive option," Green Party chairman Dan Boyle said. "Any orderly wind-down of a bank will take at least four or five years."

In response, a senior government minister and the finance ministry both said the good bank-bad bank split and an orderly wind-down remained options in talks with Brussels. "We haven't come down on how soon it (Anglo Irish] should be wound down," Dermot Ahern, the minister for justice, said.