Tens of thousands of home owners woke up this morning to learn of yet another interest rate hike this time from AIB and the EBS. It is a sneaky rise when the ECB is likely to cut interest rates next week. It is even more galling for home owners when they followed the proceedings yesterday where Richie Boucher was awarded a remuneration package of €843,000. Where is the Labour Party in all of this? A few years ago the policy of the Tánaiste's party was that the cap for bankers' pay should be €250,000 in line with the then Minister for Finance's income. A number of his backbenchers made a big stand about that this week and confronted this issue vigorously. It seemed at one point that he was going to make a stand once and for all on these issues but then, interestingly, yesterday the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Hayes, who is seated behind the Tánaiste, confirmed to all of us that this was not the Minister, Deputy Noonan's decision, Fine Gael's decision but was a Government decision. Can the Tánaiste confirm that he signed off on that decision at the Economic Management Council in Cabinet? Was the Labour Party in full agreement with this decision? How can the Tánaiste justify the extraordinary concern for those at the top of the banking system like Richie Boucher who was party to the crisis we face-----

I ask the Deputy to avoid using people's names.

-----when one compares that to the lack of concern for the Croke Park issue?

I do not agree at all with the top levels of pay in the banks. I think they are far too much.

Why did the Tánaiste not vote again them then?

They have to be brought under control. When the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Hayes, referred yesterday to a Government decision, that Government decision is to support and to seek the implementation of the report that has come from Mercers on pay in the banking system. The Government has commissioned an independent analysis of pay scales and pension packages in the banks. It has recommended that there should be reductions across the board of between 6% and 10%. Our view is, and mine certainly is, that the highest level of reduction needs to come from those who are on the highest levels of pay. It is not about any one individual; it is right across the banking system. We have put in place a cap on pay. We have banned the payment of bonuses. We are hugely conscious as well that we live less than an hour's flight time from the biggest financial centre in Europe and that is why we have worked at European Union Presidency level to put in place a restriction on bank bonuses across the European system, which I believe will help in controlling bankers' pay in this country as well.

Let us be very clear about it. The Government is clear that higher pay levels in the banking system need to come down. We commissioned a study on that, which we have received. We support it and we are awaiting the response of the banks to it. I hope and expect that they will respond positively to that report.