The Finance Minister Michael Noonan has said there were discussions in 2012 about putting a plan together to use the army to secure banks.

Michael Noonan's comments come after the Taoiseach claimed yesterday he had been told to put the army on standby to guard banks and ATMs as one weekend approached.

Speaking in Madrid, Enda Kenny said this had been the content of a discussion with Central Bank governor Patrick Honohan.

Minister Noonan told reporters in Dublin this morning he is not aware if the Taoiseach received such a briefing, but he knows that there were discussions about putting a plan in place.

“There was quite clearly security considerations and there were discussions about what might be done, but then in the nature of things, things passed on and the discussions were never turned into an actual security plan,” he said.