FF: Top bankers continue to cream it
Fianna Fáil's finance spokesperson Michael McGrath has claimed that the country's top bankers "continue to cream it" and has called the Minister for Finance Michael Noonan's year-old pay review a "mere smokescreen".
Mr McGrath revealed in a statement that 24 AIB employees earn a basic salary of more than €250,000, despite 2,500 staff being made redundant, while 32 Irish Bank Resolution Corporation staff enjoy a basic salary of at least €200,000.
Deputy McGrath said: "In response to a parliamentary question from my colleague Eamon Ó Cuív, Minister Noonan this week confirmed that 24 employees of AIB are earning a basic salary in excess of €250,000. This provides further evidence that nothing has really changed when it comes to the country’s top bankers.
"AIB is a State-owned bank which has cost the Irish taxpayers €20bn. I can see no reasonable explanation for 24 employees earning basic salaries of over a quarter of a million euro, especially at a time when the bank is planning to make 2,500 staff redundant."
Mr McGrath claimed that ordinary staff at the bank are "living in fear that their job will be gone" while the top executives continue to enjoy "Celtic Tiger era mercs and perks".
He said: "The Oireachtas Finance committee was informed last October that 32 staff at the former Anglo Irish Bank – now named IBRC – enjoy basic salaries of at least €200,000.
"It is beyond any possible justification that a dead bank doing no new business, and which will cost taxpayers somewhere approaching €30bn, is paying so many executives these type of salaries."
The Fianna Fáil TD has slammed Minister for Finance Michael Noonan for continuing with the "charade" of an executive pay review in the banks.
He said: "The review of remuneration arrangements for top executives at the covered institutions commenced in April 2011. The Minister has refused point blank to give any information on the review and refuses to say when it will be completed or whether it will be published.
"I have reached the conclusion that the review is nothing more than a smokescreen and allows the Minister give the appearance that something is being done."
