National Irish Bank is owned by Danske Bank and they applied to have the guarantee extended to them. Same thing with RBS's Irish subsidiary.  

As pressure mounted, the Irish government said it may extend the scheme to foreign banks with retail units in Ireland and that applications would be considered on a case-by-case basis.

This is rich, though:

In an editorial on Thursday, the London-based Financial Times accused Ireland of "economic nationalism".

"The government has behaved anti-competitively and the protection it is offering could even destabilise other banks," it said.

Economic nationalism is okay when the UK uses it for its own race to the bottom, but when the City bankers are threatened by someone else's nationalism it's not okay.


A vivid image of what should exist acts as a surrogate for reality. Pursuit of the image then prevents pursuit of the reality -- John K. Galbraith

I think its a matter of where the bank, not the owner, is domiciled.  So the Irish government is saying that they have a responsibility to Irish corporations, which goes straight to the heart of what a corporation is, a grant that limits liability issued by the national state.

The multinational corporation is ultimately dependent on their country of origin.  There is no Free Dollarstan.

And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg