Bankers' pay cap
Deputy Joan Burton questioned plans to review the €500,000 pay cap for senior staff in State-owned banks and asked whether the Government would publish the consultancy report. The Taoiseach said no proposal to lift the cap was before Government, though he contrasted the current issue with the bank rescues of a decade earlier.
The CEO of AIB, Bernard Byrne, will be leaving the bank to join the Davy Group. There is, as the Taoiseach knows, a cap on pay, bonuses, remuneration and benefits of €500,000 per annum for senior staff in State-owned banks. I understand external consultants from consultancy firm Korn Ferry are being paid over €140,000 to compile a report on whether the cap should be lifted. We can all guess what they will recommend but I think members of the public would be very shocked and surprised to hear that people from the bailed out banks should be paid more than €500,000 a year, given the initial bailout total was around the €65 billion mark.
Comment on this
I will finish on this. The Government is prepared to be tough on teachers' and nurses' salaries. Can the Taoiseach confirm that the Government agrees the bankers' pay cap should be lifted? Will he publish the Korn Ferry report?
Comment on this
I have not seen that report so I do not know what recommendations they have made. I can say there are no proposals being considered by Government at this time to raise the salary cap in regard to State-owned banks. I point out, though, that there were essentially two bank bailouts that occurred in this country about ten years ago. One was the bailout of Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide, and we will never recover that money. The second was when the Deputy and I were in government together, when we took a decision to rescue AIB and Bank of Ireland. I am now absolutely confident we will recover all of the money from both of those banks.