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Irish life CEO remuneration breaches government's pay cap - Doherty

Sinn Féin finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty says Kevin Murphy’s total remuneration package of €586,000 breached the government’s own pay cap.

IRISH LIFE CEO Kevin Murphy receives a remuneration package that breaches the government’s pay cap, Sinn Féin’s finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty has said.

Finance Minister Michael Noonan confirmed that the Irish Life CEO receives a “salary of €500,000 and other remuneration of €86,000” in response to a parliamentary question.

Noonan said:

The salary and benefits of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) were fully disclosed on Page 62 of the 2011 Annual Report of Irish Life & Permanent Group Holdings plc which is available at www.permanenttsbgroup.ie. In summary the CEO of Irish Life & Permanent who has been CEO of Irish Life since it’s separation in June 2012, received a salary in 2011 of €500,000 and other remuneration of €86,000.

In response, Doherty said: “Earlier this year the government used €1.3bn of taxpayer’s money to purchase Irish Life from a company the state already owned. Today it is revealed that the CEO of Irish Life received a total pay packet of €586,000. This is in excess of the government’s own pay cap of €500,000. The question also revealed that Murphy will retire shortly on an annual pension of €305,000.

“This is totally unacceptable. In fact it is obscene. At a time when ordinary people are put to the pin of their collar, it is not acceptable that the heads of failed banks continue to receive lavish salaries and expense accounts paid for by the taxpayer,” he added.

A further parliamentary question reply estimated that the total value the pension pot of former AIB CEO Eugene Sheehy could amount to €10.5 million.

In response to a question by Doherty regarding payments to Sheehy, Noonan said:

AIB informs me that for an employee retiring at age 60 with 40 years pensionable service and an annual pension of €529,000, AIB estimates that the capital value accumulated in a fund to provide this annual figure would be approx. €10.5m.

“Despite this, the Minister for Finance has not written to any of these individuals asking them to take a voluntary pay cut. The Minister for Finance has been reviewing remuneration in Irish banks, twelve months on and no action has been taken to curb these excessive pay and expenses packages,” Doherty said.

Read: IBRC CEO paid €600,000 + in allowances over three years>

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    Mute Steve O'Hara-Smith
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    Nov 30th 2021, 12:04 PM

    Why do we give a billion euro trade opportunity to organised crime, let them supply dangerously adulterated products of unkowable quality for consumption by honest and mostly respectable people who we then criminalise for their taste in intoxicants ?
    Does that sound sane to anyone ?

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    Mute Dave Thomas
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    Nov 30th 2021, 12:36 PM

    @Steve O’Hara-Smith: because the “war on drugs” mantra. Drugs have won that war a long time ago!

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    Mute Mattress Dick
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    Nov 30th 2021, 11:42 AM

    Should have just seized the cocaine. Some drugs are seemingly ok to sell according to the resident Journal druggies

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    Mute Tomo
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    Nov 30th 2021, 11:47 AM

    @Mattress Dick: 16 year olds have easier access to weed than alcohol. That weed is unregulated, of unknown strength, could be full of chemicals and is of unknown quality.

    Why are we still doing this? How many times does this need explaining?

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    Mute Mattress Dick
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    Nov 30th 2021, 12:11 PM

    @Tomo: you’re right. Seizing all drugs is good so it doesn’t get into the hands of kids

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    Mute Mac Muinteoir
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    Nov 30th 2021, 12:25 PM

    @Mattress Dick: correct. Like nicotine. And alcohol. And caffeine. Maybe when Germany and Luxembourg join Canada in creating a legal, regulated market for recreational cannabis, druggies like you will add cannabis to your list of acceptable drugs.

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    Mute Dave Thomas
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    Nov 30th 2021, 12:45 PM

    @Mattress Dick: I’d rather listen to well informed druggies than an /gn0rant moral crusader who thinks they know how everybody else should live their life!

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    Mute Declan Doherty
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    Nov 30th 2021, 1:30 PM

    @Mattress Dick: If you were genuinely worried about drugs getting into the hands of kids you’d be pro legalisation. As it stands, we leave all control to the black market with no quality checks, no age limits and no oversight.

    And if this valuation is correct then this is €1.3 million in lost revenue to the state which is obscene. And that’s not counting all the money wasted trying to enforce prohibition.

    We have got to wake up on this..

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    Mute John Johnes
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    Nov 30th 2021, 4:52 PM

    We are fighting it – keeping the drug lords in business.

    Germany legalising it – pushing drug lords away out of business.

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    Mute Ciarán O' Donoghue
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    Nov 30th 2021, 11:57 AM

    Comments open on a criminal investigation?!

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    Mute Graham Purtell
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    Nov 30th 2021, 12:19 PM

    @Ciarán O’ Donoghue: *Grabs Popcorn*

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    Mute Mac Muinteoir
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    Nov 30th 2021, 12:25 PM

    @Ciarán O’ Donoghue: comments will be closed once/if they are charged.

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    Mute Ger O'Reilly
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    Nov 30th 2021, 3:28 PM

    They will be out on bail in no time and whatever crimes they subsequently commit will not add to their sentence.

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    Mute Ellie Mae
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    Nov 30th 2021, 5:20 PM

    The drugs seized sold back to the gangs by CAB and then done over and over again for the great money loop

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