The fact that at least 15 people have loans of €500 million each from Anglo Irish Bank - the taxpayers bank - revealed an extraordinary exposure of the hard pressed public to paying for the excesses of financial speculators.

This was stated by Independent MEP Marian Harkin when she called for the confidentiality criteria of Anglo Irish Bank to be waived so that the taxpayer and all citizens would know whose debts they were paying.

“Confidentiality for those whose activities have destroyed this country’s financial system is not deserved, and the least the people must be told is what they owe and how much the taxpayer will have to pay to make up for their deficiencies”, she said.

The lenders to developers who engaged in practices which totally inflated site and property values should be ejected from the banks while the beneficiaries of such lax lending should pay the full penalty for such disastrous business decisions, she said.

The Government would have no right to call for taxpayers to make further sacrifices if they were not in full control of the banking system and ensuring that debtors did not emerge with their millions intact while Ireland’s citizens took on their €billions of losses, she insisted.

“Radical action is needed now along the lines proposed by former Bank of Ireland Chief Executive Michael Soden, which will lead to effective control of the banks by the taxpayers who will bear the brunt of national financial recovery for at least the next 10 years”, Marian Harkin MEP said.