The move by Anglo Irish Bank to advance Liam Carroll's Zoe Group €68m to finish building the bank's new HQ in the Dublin Docklands would be a "totally inappropriate use of taxpayers' money", TD Phil Hogan has said.

Fine Gael front bencher Mr Hogan said it would be a "gross misuse" of taxpayers' money if AIB is allowed to forward Mr Carroll's troubled group millions, so work can be completed on the bank’s new building.

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"This move completely undermines Fianna Fáil’s claim that its €90bn bailout of the banks through NAMA is in the public’s best interest," said the TD.

"Here we have a perverse situation where an insolvent bank is proposing to give taxpayers’ money to an insolvent developer to build a new building that will probably never be used.

"It is a perfect example of the type of bad banking decisions which dragged us into the current financial crisis."

He said proposals like these "only reinforce" the view that Irish banks are preventing property developers from going bust until they can "offload loans" to taxpayers via NAMA.

"It seems there is one rule for the taxpayer and another for banks, builders and Fianna Fáil," added Mr Hogan.

(PR/KMcA)