Irish Finance Minister
Michael Noonan on Thursday evening outlined a bank restructuring plan, saying
that the government will reduce the number of domestic banks to two “pillar
banks.”

People walk past a bank on Grafton Street in Dublin March 31, 2011. Ireland will publish what is meant to be the final bill for propping up its banks on Thursday in a last-ditch bid to convince investors it can avoid deepening Europe’s debt woes with a damaging restructuring. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

Speaking in the Dail,
Ireland’s lower house of parliament, Noonan said there will be two universal,
full-service banks and a restructured Irish Life & Permanent (ILP).

He said the first pillar
bank will be based on the Bank of Ireland, with the second one a combination of
the Allied Irish Banks (AIB) and the Educational Building Society (EBS).

“Our banks in the future
must be smaller, better funded and better capitalized,” said Noonan.

He said the radical
restructuring of the banking system is “designed to put the banking system on a
firm footing and break the bonds with our toxic banking past,” adding that it
was “essential for the economy and our country.”

The Irish minister said
the plan will be submitted to the European Commission under state-aid rules.

He said the government was
committed to the rescue program of the European Union (EU) and the International
Monetary Fund (IMF), signed in November last year.

He said the previous
government ducked and dived and procrastinated, that it did not fix the banks
and that it paved the road to disaster.

Noonan also said bank
depositors can be assured that their funds remain safe.

Ireland’s Central Bank on
Thursday published the results of vital stress tests on the four Irish banks,
which show that they need to raise an extra 24 billion euros to cope with
potential losses.

In a statement, the
Central Bank said the 24 billion euros (around 34 billion U.S. dollars) is
comprised of 13.3 billion euros for Allied Irish Banks (AIB), 5.2 billion euros
for Bank of Ireland (BOI), 1.5 billion euros for Educational Building Society (EBS)
and 4 billion euros for Irish Life and Permanent (ILP).

The Irish government has
already injected 46.3 billion euros into its banking sector, and nationalized
four financial institutions since the global financial crisis erupted in 2008.

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet