Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

Let us not talk about what could happen; let us talk about what has happened in Irish banking. AIB is lined up to purchase Goodbody and Goodbody executives can stay as Goodbody executives and remain outside the bankers' pay cap. Not only that, AIB executives can now transfer over within the new entity, which is still AIB, to be Goodbody executives to get around the bankers' pay cap. Therefore this is not an issue of speculation; it is a live, current, immediate issue in Irish banking.

Into this situation now come Bank of Ireland and Davy and the real possibility - I accept it is only a possibility - of a purchase. It is therefore not premature or speculative of me, as a member of the committee, to ask Ms McDonagh today to rule out something that the Irish public would be outraged by, that is, sneaky ways around the bankers' caps. I will ask the question in a different way. If Bank of Ireland purchases Davy, will Bank of Ireland executives be able to transfer over to Davy and escape the bankers' pay cap, or would Ms McDonagh be prepared to use this opportunity before the committee today to rule that out?