ANGLO IRISH BANK has made a deal which will see Sean Quinn and his family removed from having any role in the Quinn Group.

Finance Minister today assured employees of the Group that all 2,600 manufacturing jobs – 1,000 of which are in the Republic of Ireland – would be saved. But Michael Noonan told RTE Radio’s News at One that it was hard not to feel “personally sorry” for Sean Quinn, who was once Ireland’s richest man.

Now assets owned by Quinn and his family have been passed over to a receiver by Anglo. Sean Quinn was unable to repay €2.8bn of loans he undertook so that he could invest in the now nationalised Anglo Irish Bank. The BBC reports that Anglo has announced that Kieran Wallace of KPMG is acting as receiver for the Quinn family’s assets and that a five-year restructuring plan had been put in place to stabilise the Group’s businesses.

The new deal may see US insurance group Liberty Mutual join Anglo in taking over the insurance arm of Quinn.

Caroline Ford, a long-term employee of Quinn Insurance told RTÉ’s News at One today that she’s disappointed with the government’s response over the company and fears that there is no genuine loyalty for the border region.

“If this [Quinn] is gone, there is nothing else in that area. There is no future for many people. I was away in the last recession, I’m too old now for packing up my family and moving abroad; this needs to be addressed.”

Just last January, accountant appointed to the Quinn Group wrote a letter to those owed money by the Group, defending the continuing role of the Quinn family in the business.