A senior Government official received a draft press release announcing a blanket guarantee hours before it was agreed, the inquiry has heard.

Assistant Secretary General of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform William Beausang told the committee he received an email announcing the guarantee for all banks at 21.11 on September 29th, 2008.

He said: "It appears to have been authored earlier in the evening in the Central Bank in advance of the commencement of the meeting in Government Buildings.

“My electronic files show that I was subsequently involved over the next twenty minutes or so in preparing a revised draft of the statement which set out its intended scope.”

The evidence would suggest a blanket guarantee was agreed hours before the Government met with the banks to discuss the options available to the institutions.

Mr Beausang said he waited in an ante-room in Government Buildings with senior officials from the National Asset Treasury Management Agency.

He said he had no contact with any representatives of the banks and did not have substantive engagement with representatives of the Central Bank on the night in question.

Mr Beausang was Assistant Secretary in the Department of Finance during the time.