AIB's chief executive says the taxpayer will get back all of the €20bn it invested into the bank.
However David Duffy told the Oireachtas Banking Inquiry that it will be years before the Exchequer gets any money from AIB in corporate tax.
Mr Duffy said that the state would reap the rewards as AIB's owners in the meantime - and that in time all the bailout money will be repaid
“It’s still my belief that will return all those funds to the taxpayer over time, it’s a matter of opinion of how you characterise it, but the outcome is that the state will get repaid all its funds, no matter how characterise it in the interim,” he said.
Mr Duffy told the Oireachtas Banking Inquiry that the bank's losses will be counted against its profits before any tax is due.
Earlier, two former chief executives at AIB apologised for their role in the banking crisis.
Michael Buckley, who retired in 2005, told the Banking Inquiry he had no premonition that the crisis was imminent when he left.
But that he deeply regrets what happened and the damage it inflicted on so many.
Eugene Sheehy - who took over, before retiring in 2009 - said he was very sorry for his role, knowing a lot of people were let down.
He said he takes personal responsibility, and said on the night of the guarantee the banks were "dismissed" from the room several times where decisions were being taken.
Mr Sheehy said he was very sorry at the result of his management of the bank.
Last week, the AIB chief executive was pushed by committee members on his bank's approach to setting interest rates on standard variable mortgages.
David Duffy denied the bank had been taking profit from customers with these homeloans, and hinted that they could be in line for a rate cut during the summer.
Ulster Bank has signalled it will not be cutting mortgage interest rates, despite pressure from government to do so.
The bank chief executive Jim Brown has told the Oireachtas Finance Committee that part of the reason for them charging around 0.75% more here compared to customers in Northern Ireland is the historic performance of mortgages for the past ten years.
And he says the bank does not believe they are over-charging variable rate customers.
