DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland revealed it faces a bill of up to 50 billion euros ($68 billion) to clean up its banks, equating to over 11,000 euros per head of a recession-weary population already reeling from savage government cutbacks.

Unveiling the latest in a string of bank bailouts, Finance Minister Brian Lenihan promised yesterday that Ireland had arrived at the endgame for dealing with massive property losses but warned years of pain lay ahead for taxpayers.

"We have to bring closure to this matter and that is what we have done today," Mr. Lenihan, charged with picking up the pieces of Ireland's property-fuelled "Celtic Tiger" economic boom, said.

"Of course these figures are horrendous but they can be managed over a 10 year period."

Fears Ireland will follow Greece by turning to its European Union partners and the IMF for help abated, however, after Lenihan cancelled all bond auctions for the rest of the year, highlighting the fact that a growing but well-structured debt portfolio means there is no impending liquidity crisis.

The premium investors demand to hold Irish 10-year debt over benchmark German bunds narrowed to 457 bps, after hitting a euro lifetime high of 475 bps earlier this week. The cost of insuring Irish debt against default also fell.

Ireland still has to pay almost three times as much interest on new borrowings as Germany, however, reflecting the fact that the government's budget deficit will blow out to 32 percent of Ireland's economic output this year, more than 10 times EU's three percent cap and by far the worst in the union.

"What they are doing is really giving us the bad news upfront. I think the market needs to know, and here it is," said Padhraic Garvey, interest rate strategist at ING.

"It's a pretty astonishing deficit number, it's higher than the national debt a few years ago which is an incredible situation to be in."

Central Bank Governor Patrick Honohan said planned spending cuts next year of three billion euros would not be enough and called on the government to spell out to people what they are in for.

"It is still a figure that can be worked out without external help," Mr. Honohan told national broadcaster RTE.

"It is in that sense that it is manageable, not painless by any means."

Although the government faced big protests early last year when tens of thousands of people took to the streets, opposition has largely fizzled out with no sign of the unrest seen in Greece as austerity measures began to bite.

"If this was France they (protesters) would be pulling the place to pieces," said retired plumber John Barrett. "Here, look at it, nobody, not a bother, they don't do nothing. Look at the two protests from the unions, nothing really happened."