ANY GOVERNMENT REVIEW of bankers pay must address the fact that over 1,700 bankers in institutions with explicit state support are currently earning over €100,000, Fianna Fáil’s Finance Spokesperson has said.
Michael McGrath TD, who obtained the figures after submitting a parliamentary question to the Minister of Finance Michael Noonan, said that he hoped an expected review would result in more realistic levels of executive pay rather than a pay hike.
“Over 180 of these executives are on basic salaries in excess of €200,000. In my view, there is no justification for such a large number of bank employees earning salaries of this order” said McGrath.
The government is expected to begin reviewing bankers salaries soon, with Canadian consultant firm Mercer hired to look at pay at all levels in the banks. Despite a government limit of €500,000, some banks have continued to pay their staff more, most notably in the case of Bank of Ireland Chief Executive Richie Boucher. He received a €898,000 pay package in 2011.
“I very much hope, rather than resulting in any increases in the remuneration of bankers, that this review results in more realistic levels of executive pay across the banks that continue to owe the State and its citizens for their very existence” he said.
Taxpayers are currently paying the €64bn bill required to bail out the Irish banks.
861 bankers in AIB, 61 in Permanent TSB, 143 in IBRC and 644 in Bank of Ireland are currently paid over €100,000.
On Tuesday, the head of banking supervision at the Central Bank Fiona Muldoon compared bankers to teenagers and said that the “economic milk spilt in poor lending, the losses already incurred, have not even begun to be cleaned up.”
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