John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is still an extraordinary amount of money, the more I think about it and the reasons for it, given what people went through in terms of their employment and the FEMPI legislation and all of that. This is beginning to creep in at a level within the banks and NAMA that gives it the look of a cosy set of people being looked after. When people object to it or talk about it, very little detail is being given to them. Indeed, in the Central Bank it is almost being done as a secret arrangement with staff. The Department of Finance has a role to play in this. If we allow all this to happen and to slip, we are simply going backwards. That is my honest view on it. I do not think we are at the stage that the Department can allow something like this to happen, particularly in the banks. It is allowing the wrong message to be sent out. Caution has to be urged in this regard in spite of the challenges that exist to keep key personnel. I would like to see who is writing the criteria by which a person qualifies for all of these bonuses. We are back into the game again.