Bain & Co, the financial consultants once led by presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, has charged the Irish taxpayer $37 million euros in fees for its work on the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) to date.

The Irish government took control of IBRC (then the failing Anglo Irish Bank) in 2009. As part of Ireland's restructuring plan, it is winding down IBRC. Bain, which has also advised the British government, has been working with IBRC since the end of 2009.

Romney's former company has amassed huge fees whilst suggesting how to restructure the IBRC to maximise how to return cash to the taxpayer.

According to the Irish Independent Bain was also involved in the bank's original plan to split into an 'old' and 'new' bank, the better to marshal its assets, but that plan was vetoed by the European Commission, which opted to instead close down the entire bank.

IBRC does not share how much it pays to consultants and advisors which also reportedly include KPMG, PwC, McCann Fitzgerald, Freshfields, JP Morgan and others.

In March the former bank announced it had incurred exceptional costs of $102 million which included professional fees associated with restructuring, asset sales and legacy matters.

Romney started his business career with Bain & Co in 1977. In 1985 he moved on to work with Bain Capital, its sister private equity firm that manages $60 billion in assets, before returning to the consultancy in the early 1990's as interim chief executive.

Romney led the financial restructuring of the consultancy which resulted in it becoming a separate business. He then returned to Bain Capital.

The main objective of private equity is to reward investors.