Following its plan to inject €1.5 billion into Anglo Irish Bank, and to take 75% of the voting rights in the process, before Christmas, the Government tonight went further and totally nationalised Anglo Irish Bank. It is the first nationalisation of its kind in the history of the state. Since reaching a peak above €17 in mid-2007, shares in Anglo Irish have plummeted, and closed at just 22 cent in Dublin today. It is my opinion that the Irish government took the unprecedented measure in part because of fears that the bank's collapse would have a major impact on the our wider economy. Had Anglo Irish gone out of business a number of sectors of the economy could have found themselves under threat - particularly health insurance. The majority of people here pay insurance to get access to the country's health service. The bank's collapse could possibly have had dire consequences for Sean Quinn, a major shareholder in Anglo Irish, who also has major interests in the insurance industry.
Anglo Irish recently lost top executives over a secret loans fiasco, which the government described as "unacceptable practices" which had played a part in the nationalisation. The bank's chairman , Sean Fitzpatrick, resigned in December after a 87m euros loan controversy where he admitted he had transferred millions of euros out of the Dublin-based bank's accounts. Chief executive David Drumm announced his resignation shortly afterwards. The state tonight took on the bank's liablities which lies probably between €6billion and €20billion.
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