Might be mistaken on this one, but didn't you ROI Tigers build an entirely new town about an hour from Dublin with zero in the way of infrastructure? Maybe it could be your new Canary Wharf style financial hub? Cheaper than knocking it down. Just a thought.
Cashpoints not paying out money in the city of your choice for the foreseeable? Yeah, that would have really ended well. Looting, curfews, martial law etc etc. It really wouldn't have taken much at that point to set the UK alight. And I don't just mean Croydon.
If it wasn't for Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling, the cashpoints would have run dry during the financial crisis and the banks would have pretty much brought about the end of civilisation as we know it. Everybody else in power in the western world, including the US, was paralysed with inaction...