With the NAMA purchases not yet completed, I can’t quite narrow the Anglo figure down precisely. However, rounding up recent estimates to be on the safe side, it would be a pessimist who would put the taxpayer’s net cost above € billion. That is a huge sum, and it’s unconscionable that it could have arisen.
(I will have more to say about this in my report to the Minister for Finance at the end of the month). The main point today, then, is to stress that the cost is manageable. Shocking, if you want, but manageable. I make no excuse for using that word.