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

Therefore it is under a different name. This argument will go on now. For example, a reward model for the Central Bank is being considered. A consultant has been or will be brought on board to define what this reward model might look like. Other people in the Central Bank are bemoaning the public pay restrictions and so on. Who is paying the consultant to do this? Why is the restructuring taking place against this backdrop of disquiet about the amounts of money being paid? It is moving in the one direction, as it did before, where the consultant will make the argument stand up because he who pays the piper calls the tune. Lo and behold he or she says they are all entitled to a bonus while everyone else in the economy is finding it hard to get their entitlement in terms of a salary or wage.

The Department needs to take this on board. It is a serious development that will have consequences across the economy. If the Department allows the retention description to creep in, further descriptions will creep in that will allow further exceptional payment to be made. That is not where we are at. That is not what I see in the economy. Mr. Moran is not accountable to us in his position as a member of the board of the bank, but certainly it is a way to send a direct message back to the bank that it has a little distance to go and it should be leading by example.