Confidence, as everyone has been telling us, lies at the heart of the international banking system. Brian Lenihan the finance minister telling RTE’s David Murphy about his decision to guarantee the Irish banks, said so explicitly. “We have to create confidence,” he said on Tuesday’s Morning Ireland (RTE R1, Mon-Fri).

Confidence is also crucial in radio. When a major big story breaks, listeners turn to the heavyweights. Comparing their coverage of Tuesday’s announcement with that of rival stations, it is easy to see why Morning Ireland continues to enjoy such a massive huge lead in the ratings.

The announcement came from the Department of Finance at 6.50am, 10 minutes before Morning Ireland went on air. The Breakfast Show (Newstalk, Mon-Fri) which starts at 6.30am, was able to give the bare facts of the departmental statement before seven o’clock, making it technically the first radio show to break the news.

Newstalk presenters and in-house station adverts continued to highlight this throughout the day; but simply being first is meaningless if you are unable to follow through. The Breakfast Show had a tiny window of opportunity just before 7.00am; if they had shown that they were on top of the story, grasped its significance and were ready to line up key players over the next couple of hours, they might have nabbed a few of RTE’s listeners.

In practice, even though they do a respectable job on shoestring resources, they never stood a chance, and their jittery handling of the story as it broke did not inspire confidence that they would have much of interest to say later on.

In contrast, Morning Ireland swung into action with magisterial power. Its presenters, Richard Downes and Cathal MacCoille, were in control from the moment the show began. Crucial editorial decisions were made on the fly.

One example whichthat demonstrated good thinking was the decision to delay and rejig the normal It Says in the Papers slot. Since the Irish print media, of necessity, had nothing on the breaking story, Alison O’Connor instead reported on how papers around the world covered the previous day’s vote in the US Congress.

Christopher McKevitt in Dublinand Robert Shortt in Washington filed concise reports on the latest news in their respective areas. While several financial experts broadly welcomed the minister’s move, George Lee, RTE’s economics editor, struck a note of caution. He was first to mention the potential taxpayer exposure of ¤400 billionor more, and observed that the public might be uneasy — as in the US America — with the notion of a rescue package for fat-cat bankers.

The Morning Ireland team got the measure of the story and responded by devoting the whole programme to it. It was a superb effort and a demonstration of the sheer power and focus that the show can summon up, backed by RTE’s resources.

Newstalk, however, summoned nothing like the same intensity.

In between quizzing whatever financial pundits they were able to find, the Breakfast Show team carried on with pre-arranged items. When the chef Neven Maguire arrived in the studio to chat about food, you could almost hear the last listener switching over to Morning Ireland.

You see it’s about confidence, and, by then, Morning Ireland had convincingly shown just why it has the confidence of so many Irish radio listeners.

gerry.mccarthy@sunday-times.ie