Managers mainly as the share ownership was widely dispersed amongst Irish people and pension funds. Many retiing people were encouraged to put their retirement nest-eggs into bank shares - safe as houses - and as seems to be the case in Spain. Ministers would have been cognisant that, besides forming an oversized  part of the economy, huge numbers of their constituents would have had small shareholdings in the banks and they were a core component of many Irish pension funds. The conservative urge to shore up that position would therefore have been very strong - especially if persuaded that the problem was basically one of liquidity.

However extending Government support beyond the guaranteed retail "Pillar banks" was, I suspect, v. much at the behest of the ECB.

Index of Frank's Diaries