Dara Murphy (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and his officials. I shall commence by asking him about the single supervisory mechanism and what he referred to as an exchange of views. He mentioned a proposal that referred to a prudential supervision. Today, as he will know, we will have all read the newspaper reports on pay levels for executives in the IBRC. We all welcome the call made by Mr. David Duffy that resulted in a pay reduction for Mr. Eugene Sheehy.

I wonder, within the prudential supervision and the exchange of views, if we could have some discussion on the banks that have been nationalised or left in the control of the State? Does he see a situation where officials can thumb their nose at pay reductions? On 5 April the Minister asked Mr. Alan Dukes to require the IBRC executives to take a 15% pay reduction. I think Mr. Dukes has still not got back to him on that. Is there scope within the single supervisory mechanism to address the issue? I know that it involves a difficult legal position given the botched bank bailout by the last Government but, nonetheless, CEO pay is capped. Perhaps there is a potential to introduce a cap on pay for lower grades.