On moving up to the chairman's seat of Anglo Irish Bank after 18 years as chief executive last year, Sean FitzPatrick said that what drove him “nuts” was “bureaucracy, people who aren't real, and falseness”.

Asked if he was a “details person”, he replied: “I wouldn't be well organised and would be fearful of those who are.” And what would he do if he had a spare million? “I'd do something for the homeless - provide day-time facilities.”

His interviewer would not have known at the time that Mr FitzPatrick had undisclosed loans of €87 million (£81 million) with the bank for which he had worked for 33 years. Based on Anglo Irish Bank's share price, 35 per cent of its market capitalisation is on loan to Mr FitzPatrick.

During his stint as chief executive, Mr FitzPatrick turned Anglo Irish from a minnow into Ireland's third-largest bank. At their peak last year, shares were trading at more than €17, up from €1 a decade earlier, valuing the bank at almost €13 billion.

Among the many burning questions about his, by self-admission, “inappropriate” loan arrangements is where is the money now and can he repay it?

Given that he was in the habit of transferring the loan temporarily to Irish Nationwide for eight years, what is clear is that Anglo Irish was not too concerned.

And a clue to what Mr FitzPatrick might have been up to with such large sums came in July, when the Sunday Business Post reported that he was among a group of Irish bankers investing in a €100 million Budapest property project.

In an interview with RTE Radio in June 2007, Mr FitzPatrick had a go at what he suggested was the “corporate McCarthyism” of the Irish state financial regulatory system.

“We don't want to get rid of regulation, we just want to have appropriate regulation,” he said. “Business is about risk and without risk there's no progress. Corporate governance is really about managing this risk, not removing it. Of course there are always going to be some bad eggs, but we have not got a history of abuse in the business world.”

And he gave warning: “If we try to shackle entrepreneurs instead of encouraging them, the country is going to suffer. Part of the shackling is the huge emphasis on regulation and that can't be good for business.”

But if all political careers end in failure, then the trajectory of “Seanie”, as he is known, is even more emblematic of the Irish financial sector, with the bank on the verge of collapse and much stricter regulation the certain legacy of his downfall.

Times Recommends

• Lies and cover-up at MG Rover exposed by report
• High oil prices push manufacturing costs up
• Primark founder steps down as chief executive