This could be done now. The Taoiseach appoints 11 Senators and can appoint any 2 of them to the Cabinet. The only cabinet members that have to be TD’s are the Taoiseach and the Minister of Finance. The fact that Dev and Fitzgerald are the only two Taoisigh who have done so says a lot about us.Don't they do this in the US as well, where the Secretaries are often taken in from industry. It would be interesting to see an analysis or comparison of this.
Labour would have nationalised AIB and BOI and then pumped just as much money into them after Anglo collapsed and the run started on the rest of the Irish banks.Labour would not have written a blank cheque to cover the debts of Anglo and INBS, in line with Honahan's position that came out two years later. The run on the Irish state was caused by market doubts/fears that the figures quoted to fix the banks were wrong, and that our debts were (and possible are) unmanagable.