BUSINESSMAN SEÁN Quinn last night defended the solvency of his business and described the decision to appoint provisional administrators to Quinn Insurance as a "huge mistake".

The decision had damaged the business and was placing 5,500 jobs at risk, he told RTÉ Six One News last night.

The move had damaged Mr Quinn, his family and the business, he said. "It's major collateral damage and there was absolutely no need for it," he said.

The appointment was made after the High Court was informed of the regulator's concerns, including that the company had significantly breached its solvency ratios.

The regulator wanted Quinn Direct to be 150 per cent above the solvency margin but it was not, Mr Quinn explained. "We were well above 100 per cent but didn't reach 150 per cent. So there was never any question that we were below solvency margin," and there was "a huge surplus" he said.

Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan backed the move by the regulator. Mr Lenihan "may not know the facts" about the business, Mr Quinn said.

"He may not know the facts that the banks came over and told the regulator that they weren't moving, didn't have any need to move and there was no risk to the Quinn Group and they had absolutely no interest in looking for security," he said.

His message for the Government was that they "got it wrong, absolutely, totally wrong" he said

He said they were putting a company with 5,500 employees at risk and had "made a huge mistake".

"I don't know why they made it. I don't know what happened," he said.

Mr Quinn said that in recent weeks the company had pointed out to the Financial Regulator that there was a clause in an agreement the group made five years ago which gave US bondholders and British banks the right to assets in the event of default.

However, he said the details had been with the regulator "every year" since and there was "never any big issue with that" because nobody saw "even 1 per cent risk of being in default".

He said the regulator "wouldn't listen" to this and wanted €400 million from the company or he would place it in administration.

"He just wanted €400 million, even though it was not a figure of €400 million at all, it was more like €250 million, but he wanted that straight away that evening, and if he wasn't getting it he was going to put in an administrator the next day."

Mr Quinn said nobody believed the regulator and it was explained to the regulator by the consortium of banks that there was no claim and the group was not in default.

Mr Quinn said the company heard on the radio that an administrator had been appointed in the High Court and had been given no notice by the financial regulator.

"The regulator and his legal team went to the High Court, we didn't have any input into that at all," he said.

If representatives of Quinn Direct had been in court they would have "contested it very vigorously" because the banks had "no interest whatsoever in calling in any loans for Quinn Direct" and the group was "trading very profitably".

It made €180 million profit last year which is "a huge profit in a big recession", he said.

He reassured customers that there was no risk to them.

"There was absolutely no risk to any policy holder - never was, never will be - anybody who ever did business with Seán Quinn, the Quinn Group or Quinn Direct, we never put them under any risk," he said

He outlined the substantial reserves of Quinn Direct, including €2.1 billion of assets, almost a €1 billion in cash "plus equities, plus properties, plus various things - so there is an awful lot of cash there".