Deposit V Property

My elderly Uncle has a problem.
He has a large sum, on advice, in a deposit account to draw the interest every 3 months.
Now he is fearful that Anglo Irish Bank or INBS could go "Bust"
The last advice is buy a House with approx. half of it - Use the rent as part of his income.
Any Ideas I could pass on?

More likely that the house will go bust than the bank, IMHO

He can divide the deposit up into smaller chunks split between different banks to reduce his exposure to a bank going belly-up. It also gets him multiple entries to the Compensation Scheme for deposits which has been discussed at length in this forum.

Money can also be in An Post products, including saving certs and bonds. These have 100 per cent state backing. As I understand it this does not apply to the new Post bank service which has the normal deposit insurance of a private bank.