You may click HERE to download an ebook version for free, but consider making a donation to the charity Goal.

Kevin Cardiff was a senior official in the Department of Finance of Ireland during the worst periods of the global financial crisis that started in 2007, and was appointed by the Government as Secretary General of the Department in February 2010.

As Ireland was swept up in an economic tsunami that lasted for years, Cardiff was centrally involved in the battle to save the banking system, and later the State itself, from bankruptcy.  His very detailed and open account of these times made him a key witness at the Irish parliamentary inquiry into the banking crisis.

This book is his account of those times:  the pressures, the key incidents and the personalities involved.  He discusses in detail the big questions that faced the State, the difficult choices that had to be made, and how and why they were made.

This account concentrates particularly on the period around the controversial decision announced after a long night of deliberations on 30 September 2008, to guarantee most of the liabilities of the main domestic banks, and on the months of deliberations and negotiations before and after the launch of the €85 billion EU/IMF rescue programme.

This book should be read by anyone interested in the financial crisis and in the nature of Government in a crisis, both for its personal insights and as an important contribution to documenting Ireland’s economic crisis.

GET A COPY?

Copies can be obtained from booksellers or direct from the publisher, Liffey Press.

You may click HERE to download an ebook version for free, but consider making a donation to the charity Goal.

REVIEWS

"candour and colour that run contrary to the popular image" ... "Cardiff's recollections of the bank guarantee and bailout ... are still among the most valuable accounts"

-- Sunday Business Post

"a fascinating insider’s account of the complex, intensive and tense negotiations"

-- The Irish Catholic

ROYALTIES

The author receives no royalties for this book, and instead any royalties due go to the charity GOAL

Ireland: Back to a Different Normal, in

Michele Chang/ Federico Steinberg and Francisco Torres (Eds.), The Political Economy of Adjustment:  Throughout and Beyond the Eurozone Crisis London: Routledge 2019

selected Audit publications

The operational efficiency of the ECB’s crisis management for banks, European Court of Auditors, January 2018

Single Resolution Board: Work on a challenging Banking Union task started, but still a long way to go,  European Court of Auditors, December 2017

Performance review of case management at the Court of Justice of the European Union, European Court of Auditors, September 2017 

(These reports were published by Cardiff as ‘reporting member’ of the European Court of Auditors, responsible for the audit/review concerned)