Billions More Pour Into Anglo 'Black Hole'

The European Commission has given the Irish government its approval to provide a further $12.8bn in capital to the nationalised Anglo Irish Bank.

That comes on top of $18.4bn already approved in emergency State aid for the zombie bank.

It means the bailout of Anglo could end up costing Irish taxpayers more than $31bn - and critics say the money is going into a black hole that will never be seen again.

Anglo was nationalised last year after deposit and loan scandals and the crash in the property market to which it was severely exposed.

Its former chief executive Sean Fitzpatrick was declared bankrupt last month and criminal investigations into some of the banks dealings are continuing.

Anglo has a plan to restructure into a good bank and a bad bank, with the good bank focussing on lending to business.

But even if the EU approves this plan, many economists are now questioning whether or not Anglo Irish Bank is worth saving at this price.

The government says Anglo's collapse would wreak havoc on the economy, but others say money of this magnitude could be put to better use.

The European Commission agreed with Finance Minister Brian Lenihan's assessment that the new provisions of $12.8bn was needed to "preserve financial stability in Ireland", but said there was no doubt that Anglo would have to "restructure profoundly".

Fine Gael enterprise spokesman Richard Bruton said it was "intolerable that scarce taxpayers' money is being continuously poured into a bank that will never lend a red cent to business, and will form no part of Ireland's economic recovery".

He said it was critical that NAMA stopped purchasing loans from Anglo.

Labour finance spokesperson Joan Burton said Anglo was "the hole that keeps on growing".

"It is taxpayers who are on the hook for these vast sums of money," she said, "It's a bottomless pit that keeps getting deeper. These are just vast sums of money."