Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

Nobody has any query about the public interest credentials of all the people being offered for appointment to the banks. The Minister spoke about some kind of training course or briefing course being made available to these directors before they take up their appointment. What are they going to be trained or briefed on? Is this about the public interest or is it about modern financial products, the kind of products that have led to the crash? Will it carry a mandate of how they report back? The critical issue is whether those directors at their first meeting with the banks have a mandate from the Minister to say to some of those boards to get rid of the senior executives and directors who have failed in their duty. That is critical. On RTE last week one bank chief executive had the gall to talk about a reduction in salary, emoluments and bonuses. Will these directors agree to take no bonuses? Will the Minister give the appointees that mandate until the banks return to normal? The Labour Party has suggested that no banker should earn more than the salary of the Minister for Finance, approximately €250,000. It would probably be a modest salary by banking standards but large compensation by the standards of many ordinary people. Will the Minister just let them toddle off on their own like the FÁS directors, for us to only hear about it four years later? They are high quality individuals but if they do not have powers and a mandate, what are they to do?

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