AT LEAST 32 staff at the State-owned former Anglo Irish Bank are being paid more than €200,000 a year, according to information given to the Oireachtas Finance Committee.
That number excludes 93 private contractors at the bank, whose earnings are not on the public record. The government is facing calls to release the results of a review at the bank into wages and severance arrangements, which was commissioned several months ago.
Michael McGrath, finance spokesperson for Fianna Fáil, has hit out at the salary levels and accused finance minister Michael Noonan of being “evasive” over arrangements at the bank, which has officially been renamed the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation as the government seeks to wind it down.
“It is inconceivable that a bank which will cost the taxpayer up to €30 billion continues to pay 32 members of staff the same or more than the Taoiseach of the country,” he said. “These pay levels are outrageous and represent a slap in the face for hard-pressed taxpayers footing the bill for the reckless management of the bank in the past.”
Referring to the matter of the contractors, he added that his understanding was that “some of these contractors are exceptionally well paid.” McGrath called for the Minister to publish the results of the review into remuneration at the bank.
The figure of 32 staff was contained in correspondence from Anglo to the Oireachtas Finance Committee last week. Answering questions on the issue last month, Anglo chairman Alan Dukes told the committee the bank had to compete with other European institutions in the job market.
“One issue in Irish banking, which certainly features in Anglo Irish Bank and probably others, is that people with good reputations in banking are getting jobs elsewhere because they are being offered more money,” he said. “Some of the good people we need in order to manage the wind-down effectively are being tempted away by higher salaries.”
The Department of Finance has been contacted for comment.
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