The Anglo-Irish bank crisis will bankrupt the country and bring down the Government 73 percent of Irish people believe.

The poll in the Sunday Independent comes after a  New York Times article asked a question this week if a bank collapse could also bankrupt the country.

Hard pressed Irish taxpayers, faced with a potenial $50 billion bailout for Anglo clearly believe so.

The bill for all the banks combined could top $70 billion or one third the size of the total economy.

The final method of delaing with Anglo will be decided this week when Finance Minister Brian Lenihan meets European Union competition commissioner Joaquin Almunia in Brussels.

Ireland wants to break Anglo in two with a good bank and bad bank but EU rules may not allow that.

Meanwhile the Greens Party, the smaller party in the coalition government with Fianna Fail are now pressing for a speedy wind-up of Anglo.

Standard and Poors recently downgraded Ireland’s debt because of the bank crisis. They &P estimates the cost of recapitalising all of the banks will be about $70bn.

Meanwhile, Finance Minster Lenihan has defended the decision to attempt to rescue the bank.

Last week he said: "It's not a question of keeping it afloat. It's a question of keeping the financial reputation of the country afloat."