Aoife Quinn, the daughter of bankrupt businessman Sean Quinn, arrives at the Commercial Court in Dublin.

One of ex-billionaire Sean Quinn’s daughters has claimed she has no records of how she spent more than 370,000 euro on a Visa card within a year.

Aoife Quinn said she could not recall how she went through the money between June 2011 and July last year, but believed most of it was on legal fees.

Quizzed about the lawyers fees, she told the Commercial Court she had no receipts for them.

In her second day of being cross-examined about whether her family have fully disclosed their assets, Ms Quinn said her 379,000 euro salary from three Russian companies – Red Sector, Logistica and Finanstroy – was paid into Ocean Bank in Moscow.

She had to travel to the Russian capital to open up the account, for which she received no email or written statements but only text messages.

Her mobile phone was stolen last year, she claimed.

But Ms Quinn denied it was a significant enough event – switching her salary account from Ulster Bank in Main Street, Ballyconnell, Co Cavan to Moscow – that she would have retained any records.

“I didn’t believe so,” she said. “I was just told the transfer could not have been made to an Irish bank.”

The balance of the Moscow account shrunk from 379,000 euro to just 6,000 euro  in the 13 months since June 2011.

“The vast, vast majority of that money was spent on legal fees,” said Ms Quinn.

Asked about two bonuses of about 50,000 euro paid to her from the companies, she said she could not recall the exact amount.

“I’m not sure of the figure,” she said. “I’m not great with maths, especially in my head and especially under pressure.”

Ms Quinn is the first of five of Sean Quinn’s children and three of their spouses to be cross-examined by lawyers for the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC).

The former Anglo Irish Bank is quizzing the clan about whether they fully disclosed information on assets and accounts in their names after freezing orders were imposed by the court last July.

Paul Gallagher SC, for IBRC, said it was inconceivable that Ms Quinn had no notes or documents from a whole series of business meetings in Moscow, Zurich, Cyprus and Dubai.

The barrister repeatedly pressed her on whether it was believable she had no employment records, no bank statements and no records of very substantial payments and transactions.

But Ms Quinn said a substantial amount of documentation has been disclosed to lawyers for both the family and IBRC, including everything relevant that was in her possession.

The science graduate, who has studied law, said she met up with sisters – Ciara and Collette – in April 2011 and they decided to dispose of the shares of a number of Cypriot-based companies and their Russian subsidiaries.

She said it all happened during a rushed five or 10- minute meeting in Dublin, either at her house, her sister’s house or the offices of one of their companies – she could not recall.

After an intervention by Judge Peter Kelly to ask if it was credible there was no documentation about a decision of that magnitude, she insisted it was at the time.

“I believe that this was a reaction to the bank trying to take everything off us,” she said. “That was our reaction whether it was right or not.”

Mr Gallagher said Ms Quinn’s disclosures were “very significantly deficient”, particularly in relation to documentation she had at one time but not any longer.

The barrister also told the court a server at Finanstroy was destroyed and the hard drive was deliberately smashed, according to evidence from a bankruptcy receiver in Russia.

An IT expert confirmed it was dismantled, saying this was probably in a deliberate attempt to prevent recovery of computer records.

However, Ms Quinn said she understood a Hewlett Packard server was removed but not destroyed and insisted IBRC had access to all bank documents in relation to the company.

“I understand that Anglo or their agents in Russia have full access to bank records,” she said.

Seán Quinn did not take the mic at the Ballyconnell rally. (Pic: File)

Bankrupt former billionaire Seán Quinn was close to tears as more than 5,000 people came out in support in his hometown.

With the threat of jail hanging over his head, the former tycoon looked tired as he was flanked by family and friends during the rally in Ballyconnell, Co Cavan.

The businessman will be back before the High Court on Friday, where he faces a prison sentence for his role in an asset stripping plot that put up to €500m beyond the reach of the former Anglo Irish Bank.

His daughter Ciara told the crowd she and her siblings were the true and rightful owners of the Quinn Group companies and that her family would still be standing when the war with the Anglo ends.

She maintained they were innocent parties who will not be scapegoated by the bank.

“Our lives have been torn apart, as have our life’s work,” she said.

Well-known GAA figures Mickey Harte, Donegal selector Rory Gallagher and Peter Quinn spoke out in support of the family at the rally, organised by the Concerned Irish Citizens group.

Mr Quinn and his wife Patricia eventually broke down as prayers and a poem were read for their jailed son, Seán Quinn junior.

The family are caught up in a legal battle with Anglo, rebranded as IBRC, over some €2.8bn worth of debts and have taken a counter-case again the bank over a loans deal.

Quinn, his son and nephew Peter Darragh Quinn were found guilty of breaching court orders to stop putting up to 500m euro worth of property assets beyond the reach of the bank.

Seán Jnr is appealing his imprisonment at Mountjoy’s training centre, while Peter remains on the run in Northern Ireland.

The show of strength for the Quinns included thousands of workers from across the border counties, as well as businessmen and women who took the stage and told how they also fell victim to the banks.

The crowd cheered as letters of support were read from Fr Brian D’Arcy, rugby hero Shane Byrne and GAA figures Colm O’Rourke and Sean Boylan.

Elsewhere Gallagher told the crowd he had been friends with Seán Jnr for almost 20 years and paid tribute to his honesty and loyalty, while Tyrone GAA Boss Mickey Harte criticised the “selective” media reports on the fall of the Quinn empire.

“I have come here of my own free will, I come here because I believe that the Quinn family deserve our support,” he said.

“I think it’s made very clear here tonight that we’ve had a selective view of what’s going on.”

Mr Quinn wiped his eyes throughout rally, that lasted more than two hours, but opted not to take to the mic and instead shook hands with hundreds of well-wishers.

His brother Peter, a former GAA president, gave a 45 minute address in which he detailed facts and figures to dispute claims being made by the banks and regulators – but never mentioned his son who remains at large.

He revealed unemployment has soared in the region since the Quinn’s lost control of their firms, and claimed the family was a victim of injustice.

“Make no mistake about it,” he said.

“Some court, some day, in some jurisdiction will rule on these issues and the Quinn family will be vindicated on the main issue at least, with certainty and thereby, all the other issues will flow for that.

“Neither Anglo nor the media will break the Quinn resolve,” he added.

Once Ireland’s richest man, Quinn Snr owes Anglo €2.8bn after running up unprecedented losses through secret stock investments in the bank as its share price collapsed.

The family admit they owe €455m but have refused the claims on the rest and have taken a counter-case again the bank over a loans deal.

But Anglo does not accept claims by the Quinn family that €430m (USD) lost in a “deliberate and complex fraud” after court orders were made last year is gone and cannot be recovered.

Seán Quinn jnr leaves the Supreme Court in Dublin. (Pic: Niall Carson/PA)

It was legally wrong to jail the son of ex-billionaire Seán Quinn in an attempt to coerce the former tycoon to reverse an asset-stripping plot, an appeal hearing has been told.

The Supreme Court heard that Seán Quinn junior was jailed indefinitely at Mountjoy Prison for one offence despite his father being convicted for more serious charges.

The 33-year-old was found guilty of one charge of contempt and sentenced in July while his father was allowed to walk free, even though he was blamed for financially more significant moves.

During a legal challenge to overturn the sentence and conviction for contempt, Quinn junior’s legal team argued he was ordered to comply with several coercive orders he had no involvement with and had no power over.

Brian O’Moore, senior counsel, told the court it was “incorrect and legally wrong”, as well as “wrong in principle”, for the High Court to jail his client to encourage his father to purge his contempt and recover €500m in assets for the former Anglo Irish Bank.

“If Seán Quinn senior had the ultimate power to comply with coercive orders one wonders why his son is in jail,” the barrister said.

A smartly dressed Quinn junior – on day release from from Mountjoy’s low security training centre – sat at the back of the courtroom next to his wife, Karen Woods, as his case was opened.

He was also flanked by a plain clothes prison officer and his brother-in-law, solicitor Niall McPartland.

Quinn junior and his cousin Peter Darragh Quinn were jailed in July for breaching court orders restraining the stripping of €500m of assets in the Quinns’ now carved up International Property Group.

His cousin, son of former GAA president Peter Quinn, remains on the run in Northern Ireland.

Elsewhere Quinn senior, who was not in court for the hearing, remains free to assist the bailed-out bank to recover the assets.

The family’s legal team said Quinn junior was jailed indefinitely for not complying with a list of about 30 coercive orders set out by Anglo, but they said he is not named in any of them.

A separate three-month sentence was imposed for contempt and was disproportionate, they added.

Bill Shipsey, who also represented Quinn junior, said the jailed man was found guilty of a single allegation that he directed or participated in the transfer of $500,000 US  from accounts of Quinn Properties Ukraine to its general director, Larisa Puga, in Kiev, in late August last year.

He said the payment was facilitated by a contract of employment, adding that his client had nothing to do with it and was not a signatory on any documentation.

“There’s no evidence of participation, let alone direction in that,” he added.

Once Ireland’s richest man, Quinn senior owes Anglo, rebranded as the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC), €2.8b after running up unprecedented losses through secret stock investments in the bank as its share price collapsed.

The Quinns admit they owe €455m but have refused the claims on the rest and have taken a counter-case again the bank over a loans deal.

However, lawyers for the IBRC claimed they will present new evidence that will keep Quinn junior behind bars when the hearing continues later today in front of a five-judge Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Susan Denham,

The initial case was linked to ownership and transfer of ownership of the €114m Kutuzoff Tower in Moscow; the €62m Ukrania Shopping Centre in Ukraine; and a €64m office block in Hyderabad, India.

Last June High Court judge Elizabeth Dunne found the three Quinn men consciously defied and misled the courts as they shifted family assets as far afield as Ukraine, Russia and Belize.

She accused the three of engaging in complex and costly steps to put the assets of Quinn’s international property group beyond Anglo in a blatant, dishonest and deceitful manner.

When, after three weeks, they failed to follow her orders – which included disclosing all their assets and restoring the shareholdings of several companies, including the valuable Finansstroy, Red Sector and Logistica firms – she sentenced the younger men to three months in jail.

Secretly filmed video footage of the two in a restaurant in the Ukrainian capital Kiev in January was shown in court, in which they discussed trying to transfer a company and move cash through Amsterdam.

Quinn senior was spared jail to fulfil the court orders and return assets which have been shifted offshore or into shelf companies.

The Quinn family has been made scapegoats of the financial crisis surrounding the former Anglo Irish bank, Peter Quinn has claimed.

Peter Darragh Quinn has fled to Northern Ireland to escape the reach of Irish authorities.

The brother of former billionaire Sean Quinn, and a prominent figure in his own right who was once president of the GAA, said his family remained united in the face of major criticism and damning court findings.

He said there was no split over the decision of Sean Quinn Jr to go to jail for contempt of court, while his son Peter Darragh avoided prison by remaining in Northern Ireland.

Mr Quinn claimed his son believed he had tried to purge his contempt and saw no reason why he should go to prison.

“There’s one thing about the Quinns – we have never split on any issue and we won’t split on this issue,” he told BBC Radio Ulster’s Sunday Sequence.

“There has never been a family dispute in our generation of any significance and there won’t be.

“Sure, Peter’s north of the border, Sean’s in jail – they both made the decision.

“Sean was asked by his father if he was going to go to jail, he said he would go to jail if that’s what was in the best interests of the group.

“Peter was asked if he would go to jail, he said he didn’t see any reason why he should go to jail.”

Last month a court ruled that Peter Darragh Quinn, Sean Quinn Sr and Sean Quinn Jr, were in contempt after assets worth millions were put out of reach of the bank.

The renamed Irish Banking Resolution Corporation (IBRC) claims the Quinns owe it about £2 billion.

Mr Quinn predicted the younger generation of his family would be back in business, but said they had been scape-goated. He attacked politicians and the media and said they should be dropped “into the middle of the Atlantic”.

The family’s business dealings have come in for major criticism, but Mr Quinn denied they were to blame for the bank’s collapse.

“That’s not our fault that it went wrong. It went wrong to a royal degree because the bank was undertaking activities which it shouldn’t have been undertaking. It was not being honest with its shareholders, it was not being honest with the investment community and indeed it was not being honest with its borrowers.”

He said his family’s claims that they were in the dark about Anglo at the time of his brother’s dealings will eventually be proven in court: “We will win it at European level.”

He defended his brother’s use of contracts for difference in finance deals, which he said were widespread in investments in Dublin economic activity.

“It didn’t plunge the bank into billions of pounds of losses. So far as it plunged anyone into losses, it plunged the Quinn family into losses. It didn’t plunge the bank into losses. “The bank was making losses based on its own poor performance and the fact that it was fudging its balance sheet.”

On the issue of assets being moved out of the control of the bank, he said “our view was those assets never belonged to Anglo”.

Despite the damning court findings, he said his brother was “an obvious scapegoat”.

“The fact that he is from the border, and that he is from the north, the fact that he doesn’t speak with a Dublin accent, that he hasn’t any education, all of those things are factors.

“He is an outsider, he always was an outsider and he clearly is still a outsider.”

He added: “People along the border are not very highly valued in either Dublin or Belfast, and certainly nationalists along the border are not very highly valued in either place.”

Mr Quinn said his brother was Ireland’s greatest manufacturer and could have gone on to succeed in his business ventures. Asked if he maintained that the Quinn family were the only people in the saga with clean hands, he said: “I am not saying that. Sean took €230m out of the insurance company which he shouldn’t have taken. In terms of putting the assets beyond the use of Anglo, we would have much preferred not to have had to do that. We were forced into doing that.

“The reality is that Anglo have won the PR war. The media have taken the Anglo story hook, line and sinker and they have convicted the Quinns of things that we didn’t do.

“I am not saying the Quinns have clean hands in everything. We would never have said that. Even when we produced profits of half a billion a year we would never have said that we have clean hands on anything because that’s a claim that no businessman or woman can ever make.

“Clean hands is something that I don’t really understand. If I was in a laboratory I would understand what cleanliness is, but in terms of clean hands in business, in business you take advantage of whatever opportunities are there, and some people would consider that what’s sharp practice would be considered by some people to be good business.”

He added “There is certainly no dishonesty, absolutely no dishonesty.”

Bankrupt former billionaire at a rally in Cavan last night

Bankrupt billionaire Sean Quinn has insisted he does not know the whereabouts of his on-the-run nephew, who has been pictured in his native Fermanagh.

Peter Darragh Quinn was photographed with his father, former Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) president Peter Quinn, at a football match on Friday – one week after a judge in Dublin ordered his arrest and imprisonment.

His cousin Sean Quinn junior remains in Mountjoy’s Training Unit, where he is serving a three-month sentence for contempt of court.

Quinn Snr, 65, claimed he has no idea where Peter is despite speaking to his father several times this week.

“I got as big a shock when PD wasn’t in court,” said Quinn, who said there had been no fallout when they signed legal papers ahead of the court hearing.

He told This Week on RTE Radio: “Peter was absolutely convinced that no matter what he done, Anglo were not going to agree to it. And he wanted desperately to purge his contempt.

“He got a wee bit scared… PD just said to himself there’s no answer to this, this is not going anywhere.”

The three Quinn men were found guilty of contempt of court for hiding millions of euros of assets from the former Anglo Irish Bank.

Quinn senior, once Ireland’s richest man, was an industry, insurance and property tycoon whose doomed gambles on Anglo shares lumbered the family with a €2.8bn debt and a jailed son.

The pensioner was spared prison to give him time to purge the contempt and unravel the moves that carved up €500m of the family’s international property empire.

But gardai cannot execute a warrant for Peter if he is outside the Republic of Ireland and in Northern Ireland.

Supporters of the family staged a demonstration to show their solidarity with the Quinn family last night.

Thousands of people brought Ballyconnell to a standstill with a mass rally in support of the Quinn family.

Several major GAA names from both sides of the border led young and old, many carrying posters calling for the release of Sean Jnr.

An emotional Sean Quinn Snr, his wife Patricia, three of their children and extended family members, including Sean Jnr’s wife Karen, were at the demonstration.

“The Quinns always stick by each other,” he said.

The former tycoon thanked his staff for their service and their help in building the empire he grew by working hard on his behalf, but criticised those against him.

“An untrue story is being told,” he added.

Tyrone manager Mickey Harte also stood by the Quinns, who at one stage employed 7,000 people – many in the border counties.

“You know decent people when you meet them. The Quinns are decent people,” he said.

Seán Quinn leaves the High Court in Dublin yesterday. (Pic: PA)

Bankrupt ex-billionaire Seán Quinn, his son Seán and nephew Peter Darragh Quinn have avoided jail for contempt of court after hiding a €500m property portfolio from the former Anglo-Irish Bank.

The High Court in Dublin will reassess the Quinns level of co-operation with the rebranded zombie bank at a later date as it pursues more than a dozen other lawsuits in Ireland and worldwide to recoup debts.

The three were found in contempt this week for trying to move holdings in the Ukraine and Russia into shelf companies and hide them from the bank.

Mrs Justice Elizabeth Dunne’s damning judgment found them to have been blatantly dishonest and deceitful when questioned on the movement of assets.

After hearing arguments to coerce the Quinns to co-operate, she added: “I find it disappointing, at even this late stage, there seems to be no acknowledgment of the wrongdoing that has been done by the respondents in relation to specific matters that have been done.”

Bust business tycoon Quinn owes the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation €2.8bn after running up unprecedented losses through secret stock investments in Anglo.

Seán Quinn leaves the Four Courts in Dublin in March 2012. (Pic: Julien Behal/PA)

Bankrupt tycoon Seán Quinn, his son and nephew could face jail after being found in contempt of court for putting part of an international property portfolio beyond the reach of the former Anglo-Irish Bank.

A court ruled the former billionaire, son Seán Jnr and nephew Peter Darragh consciously defied and misled the courts as they shifted family assets as far afield as Ukraine, Russia and Belize.

The lawsuit was brought by the State-owned bank over claims the three breached a High Court order, made in Dublin in April last year, and moved businesses into shelf companies to avoid repaying debts.

The Quinns owe Anglo €2.8bn.

Mrs Justice Elizabeth Dunne said instead of trying to pay an undisputed sum of €455m, the Quinn family took every step possible to make it life difficult for Anglo.

“They have engaged in a complex, complicated and, no doubt, costly series of steps designed to put the assets of the IPG (international property group) beyond the reach of Anglo, in a blatant, dishonest and deceitful manner,” she said in a damning judgment.

“They have consciously misled courts here and elsewhere.

“They have sought to deprive Anglo of the assets which would go some way to discharging an admitted indebtedness.

“The behaviour of the respondents outlined in evidence before me is as far as removed from the concept of honour and respectability as it is possible to be.”

Outside the court, Mr Quinn – who was once Ireland’s richest man – said the judgment was “interesting, very interesting”, and added “I am not dishonest” before he left in a waiting car.

The contempt lawsuit was the latest court battle the Fermanagh-born businessman has lost after he secured bankruptcy in Northern Ireland only for it to be overturned and a Dublin court then to declare him bankrupt.

It is also one of a series of cases across several jurisdictions as the zombie bank, rebranded last year to the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, tries to recover a €500m international property portfolio to cover debts run up by Mr Quinn in secret and ill-fated share deals in Anglo.

The judge warned that potential punishment for contempt would include a punitive sanction – which could be jail.

She will decide on Friday what sanctions to impose on the three, whose evidence she described as uncredible, unbelievable and evasive.

“It would be very difficult to persuade me there should not be a punitive element,” she said as she told the Quinns’ layers that aspect of the sanction would be influenced by the level of co-operation they give in relation to any coercive order made.

In fierce criticism of the Quinns, the judge said the bank had faced considerable obstacles and was opposed at every step as it chased assets.

She said she was not impressed with the manner in which the three gave evidence, describing Peter Darragh Quinn as evasive, less than forthright, obstructive, unco-operative and, at times, untruthful.

She said evidence about his overseas trips, including to Kiev and Dubai, was not credible.

“Seán Quinn senior was also a witness who was evasive and unco-operative,” she told the packed courtroom.

“On a number of occasions during the hearing, rather than answer questions put to him, he embarked on lengthy criticisms of Anglo.

“First of all, it is clear that I do not accept his evidence that steps were taken to put assets beyond the reach of Anglo by the signing of the various assignments and other documents referred to in April 2011.

“Secondly, I find it impossible to accept the evidence of Sean Quinn senior to the effect that he had no hand, act or part in the matter after April 2011 following the appointment of the share receiver. His evidence to that effect is not credible in my view.”

Mrs Justice Dunne said she also came to the conclusion Sean junior was not telling the truth, declaring his evidence over a trip to Kiev last August as “simply unbelievable”.

She said he was there to oversee a US$500,000 transfer from Quinn Properties Ukrainian (QPU) to Ms Larisa Yanez Puga, general director of Univermag, a Quinn-owned company in the eastern European state.

The bank’s pursuit of assets held by the Quinns has led to a paper trail and court cases in Ireland, Northern Ireland, Russia, the Ukraine, Cyprus, Sweden and Belize.

The contempt case was told that, in the Cypriot court battle, misleading affidavits were sworn by the Quinn family.

The judge said that, during his evidence, Mr Quinn senior spoke of the Quinn Group and its importance as an employer of 7,000 people.

“One can appreciate the ability that led to the creation of such a business empire,” she added.

“Seán Quinn senior also spoke of the honourable, respectable way in which the businesses comprised in the Quinn Group were run.

“I wish I could say the same about the manner in which the respondents have dealt with the adverse circumstances in which they now find themselves having regard to the collapse of the Quinn business empire.”

Mike Aynsley, Irish Bank Resolution Corporation chief executive, said: “The proven planned, covert and illicit actions taken by the Quinns and connected parties have resulted in millions of euros being lost or put at risk.

“IBRC will continue to seek to remedy this and recover as much of the remaining assets as possible on behalf of the Irish taxpayer.”

The vast majority of workers' jobs at the Quinn Insurance Group will be safe (Pic: Julien Behal/PA)

Sean Quinn, once Ireland’s richest man, has been stripped of his mighty business empire in everything but name.

Anglo Irish Bank seized the tycoon’s Quinn Group as it chases €5 billion of family and company debts caused mainly by catastrophic share deals.

The deal ensures the vast majority of the 4,200 jobs in the manufacturing and insurance wings are safe for at least five years.

But it leaves the former billionaire powerless in the multinational business he founded and facing the threat of bankruptcy if Anglo issues demands on all debts.

Finance Minister Michael Noonan said protecting the Quinn Group companies was good news for workers.

“From an employment point of view it’s a very good news story,” he said.

“From the Quinn family point of view … Sean Quinn himself made an enormous contribution to employment in the border counties and from a personal level one would have to feel very sorry for him.”

Renowned entrepreneur Mr Quinn and his family were considering the devastating end to their role in the 40-year-old self-made business, a spokesman said.

In a move separate from the Anglo action, Quinn Insurance — the cash-cow of the group which employs about 1,000 people — looks set to be sold to the fifth-largest insurer in the US, Liberty Mutual.

Mr Quinn has been forced into corporate exile – the ultimate price to pay for a complex and secret share deal which left him holding a worthless 15 per cent of now nationalised Anglo.

The Fermanagh tycoon, along with relatives, owes the bank €2.88 billion and the business group owes €1.2 billion.

Kieran Wallace, of accountancy firm KPMG, will hold the family’s shareholding as manufacturing businesses are given “breathing space” to rebuild over the next five years.

Anglo chief executive Mike Aynsley suggested Mr Quinn had to be removed from the group or the bank risked allowing him to “milk” the business for funds to repay debts.

“We actually saw (it) as quite a risk continuing to milk or dividend these companies heavily in an effort to pay back the Quinn family debt,” Mr Aynsley said.

The bank boss accepted that some of Mr Quinn’s debts will never be recovered.

Anglo, refinanced with about €30 billion of taxpayers’ money, effectively controls the Quinn Group now.

Under the deal, the €500 million debt on the books of Quinn’s manufacturing firms will be wiped out.

These firms, involved in the manufacture of glass, insulation, packaging, plastics and radiators, are based across Ireland, the UK and Europe.

Lenders to the group, which includes Irish and international finance houses, said the deal would allow growth as they attempted to recoup hundreds of millions.

“The debt restructuring plan includes a substantial debt reduction on the group’s manufacturing operations, which will provide the foundation for the Quinn Group’s future growth and success,” they said in a statement.

The 2,600 manufacturing employees, including about 1,000 in the unemployment blackspot of Ireland’s border region, have been given guarantees their jobs are safe for five years.

The vast majority of the 1,570 insurance workers have also been told they will be kept on, but 24 jobs in Manchester will go.

Caoimhghin Ó Caoláin, Cavan-Monaghan Sinn Féin TD who leads an all-party group supporting workers, said they were stunned by the share transfer.

A petition of 90,000 signatures in support of protecting Quinn jobs was handed to the Government.

Group chairman Pat O’Neill paid tribute to Mr Quinn and said he had “deservedly earned the respect and admiration of people all over Ireland”.

“Sadly, in more recent years a number of well-publicised events have left the manufacturing group with substantial borrowings which, quite simply, the group could not service,” Mr O’Neill said.

“If these debts were not restructured, the businesses could not survive in their present form.”

Mr O’Neill said the deal should give the group the necessary financial stability to sustain business.

“We do not anticipate job losses from or related to this restructuring. On the contrary it will help to protect jobs. There are no plans whatever to break up the manufacturing businesses,” he said.

Mr Quinn’s downfall can be traced to what is best described as a bet on the stock market value of Anglo Irish Bank shares.

The tycoon, who built his empire on the back of a borrowed £100 and a small quarry on family farmland, used a hidden stock trading technique known as contracts for difference.

Investing huge sums, his stake in the now-defunct bank, the most aggressive lender for Ireland’s Celtic Tiger developers and speculators, grew at one stage to somewhere close to the 20% mark.

But the trades were a gamble.

Mr Quinn was using the complex contracts on a buy-now, pay-later basis up to 2008 — no-one including regulators or bank bosses had to be notified about his heavy trading and he was set to gain if the share price went up.

But the opposite happened, with Anglo eventually going bust, and the shares were ultimately rendered worthless when the Irish State took control.

Mr Quinn was estimated to be worth about €5 billion by Forbes magazine in the 2007 rich list.