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Greedy banks should be charged €250million a year indefinitely to pay back the cost of bankrupting the nation.

Labour leader Brendan Howlin believes they should be made pay their fair share of the estimated €40billion the taxpayer was landed with to bail them out.

It is part of the party’s pre-budget submission unveiled at the Royal College of Physicians in Dublin yesterday.

The current levy is pegged at €150million just for the banks involved in the bailout and are still standing.

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But shockingly, with only a fraction of the tens of billions stumped up by the State paid back, the levy is due to cease at the end of next year.

Mr Howlin believes it would be “scandalous” if the banks were allowed to dodge their responsibilities like this. He is looking for the levy to be extended and increased.

Mr Howlin told the Irish Mirror: “The bank levy is due to come to a close in 2021, that’s just scandalous.

“I think the levy should be imposed until the debt is paid.

“We are proposing raising the bank levy from €150million to €400million to recoup an additional €250million from the banking sector to go some way towards paying their debts to the Irish public.”

Mr Howlin’s colleague, finance spokeswoman Joan Burton, added that it was important to keep the levy going, especially considering the ongoing tax loophole that exempts banks from paying any corporate tax.

Mr Howlin also believes that we need a “proper” State-owned bank - like ones in Germany - that aren’t allowed to operate “at arm’s length” like the State-controlled AIB has been able to do.

The levy is collected annually from the banks operating in Ireland as a percentage of interest on deposits.

Bank lobbyists have campaigned strongly for the levy to be scrapped in 2021, as was promised in the Finance Bill of 2016.

(Image: Gareth Chaney Collins)

They are looking forward to it fizzling out next year but Mr Donohoe could extend it in the upcoming budget if he wants to.

Elsewhere in Labour’s pre-budget proposal the party wants to bring in extra corporate taxes such as increased stamp duty on shares, cut out tax credits for the rich earning over €100,000 and abolish “so-called entrepreneurial relief on capital gains tax.”

On the welfare side Labour is proposing an extra €5 a week for all social welfare recipients.

And for ordinary PAYE workers and the self-employed, Labour wants to make it a level playing field for all PRSI benefits such as dental check-ups and free glasses.