The Local Government Association wants the same blanket guarantee for councils as for personal customers of IceSave and other banks.

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It has also lifted its blanket guarantee on deposits, which should encourage bigger customers to switch to the most reliable outfits.

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In September 2008 the collapse of Lehman Brothers prompted him to announce a blanket guarantee to creditors of Ireland's big lenders.

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Also, on the other side of the world, the governments of Australia and New Zealand have announced a blanket guarantee of all bank deposits.

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Although the country's government claims to be fully funded until the middle of next year, it has provided a blanket guarantee to the Irish banks, some of whom are now finding it impossible to borrow money in the markets.

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Ireland has made a valiant attempt to rein in its deficit, but it is still in deep financial trouble because in 2008 Dublin offered a blanket guarantee for the liabilities of its local banks (covering creditors and depositors), in a step which has now proven deeply unaffordable.

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The most sweeping intervention of all came from Ireland's government, where concerns about spiking credit-default swap (CDS) spreads, falling share prices and jittery depositors led the finance minister to announce, on September 30th, a blanket guarantee on the deposits and almost all the debts of the country's six biggest banks until September 2010.

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Tiny Ireland, with its oversize banks, has just augmented its insurance scheme by giving a blanket government guarantee to bank deposits and liabilities.

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State courts can impose limits on social media as a condition of a sex offender's probation or parole, but a "blanket ban" on Internet use violates the First Amendment's guarantee of free expression, the judges found.

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