The Government is being urged to do more to encourage banks to clear substantial debts from their books.

A new survey of 51 lenders by the European Banking Authority says AIB and Bank of Ireland are least prepared for another crash.

They're ranked in the bottom of 51 lenders in the bloc in the latest stress tests.

The report assesses whether financial institutions have enough resources to deal with another major economic crash - if it were to happen again.

Owen Callan of Cantor Fitzgerald says the Government needs to taken measures to address the situation: "I don't think we should be overly concerned, I think we should be aware - that would be the word I would use - that the Irish banks still need to work through this problem."

"That the politicians probably need to support or to perhaps push the Irish banks to continue to work through these problems of loans in arrears. There are still a lot of residential home loans in arrears, albeit it is falling and falling at a fairly significant pace, but there is still a large stock of that out there."