decision may end up bankrupting Ireland.

In Irish Bank Crisis, a Texas-Style Solution Is Unlikely - NYTimes.com: "Texas may not look much like Ireland. But at different times, each was deemed a model of rapid economic growth, envied and resented by neighbors. During those boom times, each had banks that went crazy, making so many speculative loans that the banking system was doomed when the bubble burst.
The difference was in what happened after the fall. The United States let the Texas banking industry collapse, with out-of-state banks picking up the pieces as the national deposit insurance fund suffered substantial losses. Ireland instead decided to bail out the banks and nurse them back to health as institutions based in Ireland, not controlled in some other country, and there was no European burden-sharing.
That decision may end up bankrupting Ireland. It certainly has led to a deep and enduring recession."