Anglo Irish Bank may recover less than half of the €2.8 billion owed to the bank by businessman Sean Quinn and his family, chairman Alan Dukes said today.

Anglo was yesterday confirmed as the joint owner of Quinn Insurance, with US-based Liberty Mutual, and is currently working on a five-year business plan for the Quinn Group, in which the lender seized control of the equity on April 14th.

Speaking on RTÉ Radio One this morning, Mr Dukes said the financial institution would be able to reduce "very substantially" the provision it has made against the company". Anglo made provisions of €2.2 billion against the Quinn's €2.8 billion of loans.

However, he said a great deal would depend on how successful the insurance platform and other companies within the group could be developed.

"I would clearly like to be able to meet the full provision but it's unlikely that in a period of five years that we would be able to make a net return of €2.8 billion out of that," he said.

He estimated that the bank would probably make "less than half" of the money back, but said without the arrangement Anglo would not be able to make as much money back on behalf of the taxpayer.

"We're reducing the risk on the money that we're owed because we have access to a stream of income that we wouldn't have access to without this arrangement," he said.

Mr Dukes said there had been substantial restructuring of debt in companies throughout the Quinn Group.

"We have secured the lifting of guarantees in favour of other companies in the group, which were a burden on the insurance company," he said.

"Without that the economics of the insurance company would continue to be very difficult."

Seán Quinn and his family have blamed the accountants who have run Quinn Insurance for the last year for the €706 million in losses uncovered at the company. The Quinn family claimed the company had €1.1 billion in assets and €464 million in property when the administrators were appointed.

They said it was inevitable the reported losses would be "substantial" because the administrators were putting aside far greater amounts of money to meet claims than was the norm in the industry. They also pointed out that €200 million of the insurance company's assets was being used to repay the debts of the Quinn Group to international banks and bondholders.

Mr Dukes said the family would have to discuss the matter with the administrators, but noted that the €706 million loss was dating from 2009, before the administration started.

However, he said Anglo had been aware for some time that there was a problem in the company.

Earlier today, the Taoiseach Enda Kenny was confronted in Co Leitrim by a protest group concerned about jobs at the Quinn Group. Mr Kenny was attending an energy conference in Drumshambo when about 100 protesters gathered at the hotel.

Additional reporting: Bloomberg