TÁINAISTE EAMON GILMORE said today he does not think it is acceptable for former executives of any banks that have been “bailed out with Irish taxpayers’ money” should receive pensions of over €500,000 a year.
He also said that it is unacceptable that current executives at IBRC should be on on salaries of that level.
This follows the disclosure of figures by Finance Minister Michael Noonan which showed that six current at the former Anglo Irish Bank earn over half a million euro a year, despite the government’s cap on remuneration packages for bankers.
“That is why the Minister for Finance told the IBRC in April that those salaries should be reduced and that is why the Minister for Finance has undertaken a full review of those salaries that are being paid,” Gilmore said in the Dáil today.
“I want to make it very clear, because this is something that is not acceptable to the government, it is not acceptable to the people of this country who have had to suffer the consequences of what these banks did and the way in which they were managed.”
People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett called on the government to introduce a 10 per cent levy on all incomes over €100,000 in the budget next month instead of implementing further cuts on low income earners.
He said the government should be focusing on the “golden circle who are being insulated from the impact of austerity instead of attacking the vulnerable and people who have been battered and hammered unjustly with the cost of the current financial crisis”.
Gilmore said there will be no insulations under this government and they will produce a budget that is “fair and balanced” next month.
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