One year ago the country woke up to the news that the Government would now guarantee all loans and borrowings from the six main banking institutions in Ireland.
Listen to the Morning Ireland report.
It was the first of its kind in the world, and would bring both international scorn and admiration over the following weeks, eventually leading to many countries adopting a similar guarantee to banking systems.
Just the day before, the ISEQ index of Irish Shares suffered its biggest one-day fall in its history, shedding 13% or €6.5bn.
Watch the Nine News report on the ISEQ's index record one-day fall on 29 September 2008.
It was under these circumstances that Taoiseach Brian Cowen, Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan and the heads of Irish banks met overnight and hammered out the details of what was to be known as the Govt bank guarantee scheme - or the Credit Institutions (Financial Support) Bill 2008.
Answering questions in the Dáil on 30 September 2008, Mr Cowen said the entire banking system would have been at risk if he hadn't acted in the face of the liquidity crisis.
Mr Cowen also said the move would allow the banks to go to the international markets now and raise funds.
He said it was not his intention that the taxpayer would be liable for any shortfall down the road as he put it.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said the public could not be expected to underwrite a €400bn guarantee with no strings attached.
Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan stressed the guarantee was not free and was in no way a bailout for banks.
The bill was broadly welcomed during the debate, which finished at approximately 11.45pm on the night of 30 September.
Watch the Six-One News report on the Dáil exchanges following the bank guarantee scheme.
The Financial Regulator at the time, Patrick Neary, later said that the State guarantee would result in enhanced regulations for banks.
The following day TDs continued their consideration of the emergency legislation, with the Seanad sitting throughout the night to pass the bill.
Legislation on the scheme was finally passed by the Oireachtas and was signed into law by President Mary McAleese on Thursday, 2 October.
Watch the report on the passage of the emergency legislation through the Oireachtas.
A year ago, Irish banks, overloaded with increasingly worthless loans to the property sector, stood exposed with nowhere else to turn.
The bank guarantee gave the banks time to breathe.
Within weekens however, the Government had to inject €5.5bn into the banks to recapitalise the banks.
But the scale of the loans which the National Asset Management Agency will take on, the possibility the Government will have to inject more money into some of the banks and the increasingly uncertain future of Anglo Irish Bank means neither the banks nor the taxpayer are out of the woods by a long shot.
The Department of Finance is putting the finishing touches to a planned extension of the guarantee scheme.
Watch the report on the bank guarantee scheme's first anniversary.
Mr Lenihan now says it is important that the Government begins to work on exiting from the guarantee, but this depends on market conditions.
He said the Government may have to keep the guarantee alive for medium-term bonds issued by the Irish banks.
