Irish bankers 'taped joking about bailout' IRISH government ministers have been accused of turning a blind eye to the country's financial collapse after tapes emerged of top bankers joking about bailouts. In a set of phone calls recorded five years ago, executives at the toxic Anglo Irish Bank laugh about abusing a blanket bank guarantee to beef up the books at the expense of the UK and Germany. One conversation - taped two days after the fateful September 30 2008 bank guarantee, and published by the Irish Independent - features former chief executive David Drumm giggling while his colleague John Bowe recites lines from Deutschland Uber Alles. Drumm, who has since fled to the US, and Bowe are heard laughing about concerns that the guarantee would drive a wedge between Ireland and its EU partners. The former said he would give "two fingers" to UK concerns. Ireland's Finance Minister Michael Noonan and deputy prime minister Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore said they were unaware bankers' conversations were recorded. The opposition hit out at the ruling Fine Gael-Labour coalition for not examining reasons for the banking and economic collapse in the country, claiming they either do not know or do not care that first hand accounts of bankers' attitudes exist. It is understood that Ireland's Garda fraud squad and company law watchdog, the director of corporate enforcement, have had access to recorded phone calls in Anglo since the bank's headquarters was raided in 2009. The Anglo tapes have been published as pressure mounts on how the government will establish a banking inquiry - either through the parliament or a commission of inquiry. Drumm and Bowe laugh about damage being done to Ireland's reputation and concerns of flight of deposits out of Britain. So f***in' what. Just take it anyway... stick the fingers up," Drumm said about cash flowing in from Europe. The bankers, recorded in January 2009, sound delighted with the temporary financial windfall, saying it was "fantastic" that if Anglo was nationalised they would keep their jobs and become civil servants. An earlier recording - published on Monday - took place on the eve of the 2008 guarantee, which ultimately led to the Irish state paying for multibillion-euro bank losses. Bowe spoke to colleague Peter Fitzgerald, who became the spokesman for the rebranded Anglo under the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation. They discussed how the bust bank was seeking a seven billion euro rescue fund from the Central Bank of Ireland and once Irish authorities paid in they could not walk away. Anglo was bailed out by the Irish State with 29 billion euros. The call took place within days of the collapse of Lehman Brothers as deposits flew out of Anglo at about one billion euro a day and fear spread of a wider run on the banks. A Department of Finance spokesman said the "general consensus" was that ministers were unaware that internal phonecalls are recorded. Bowe and Fitzgerald deny any wrongdoing and allegations they misled the government or Central Bank. They have reportedly put some of their jokes down to gallows humour.