Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

However, in terms of people being fit and capable to do their jobs, the banks had a culture of lending money without making sure that it was available to come back in. They had a bonus culture at the time of rewarding people for the money that left an institution as opposed to the money that came back into it as a result of wise investments and so on. Much of that has changed but a breakdown in one of questionnaires completed by AIB indicated that 9% or 10% of AIB staff earn more than €100,000. That is not a huge percentage but nearly 1,000 people are still earning more than a €100,000 a year which, by any measure of the Irish workforce, is a reasonably significant amount of money. People see that many people working in the banks are still in good jobs and doing well and the banks are now back making money yet they are chasing people for their money. I know they have to do that but we have heard at this committee that sometimes people were being hounded and chased in an unfair manner.

They were being rung at certain hours of the day and between ten and 12 times a day. All that feeds into the culture of the banks. As Deputy Michael McGrath outlined, the banks have a culture. Ultimately they are accountable. Corporate governance requires them to be accountable to their shareholders. They are working on behalf of their shareholders who want them to maximise returns subject to the laws of the land. Ultimately, their bonuses, assessments of performance and so on are based on how well the bottom line is performing. This culture board wants to make sure that the banks are consumer focused. It represents the banking institutions and, in theory, it is more likely to deal with the senior executives in all the banks than with the people on the ground at the counters. How do we get to a stage where banks never mis-sell a product? There is an incentive to sell people products. They may not need all the products they are being sold. There has been a culture in the banks, as we have seen with tracker mortgages and other issues, of not treating customers well. I am asking Mr. Crowley about this rather than the banking culture board but he has experience of banking and is dealing with bankers all the time. How do we get to a stage where the customer is at the centre of every decision, as opposed to the profits?