Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

I am surprised by the Minister's response given what he has said about the need to have a dramatic change in the banking culture. Let us not forget it was by buying into risks which these executives did not understand that we are in our present position. If they had any science about them they might not have been doing this sort of thing. Bogus science was behind the enormous explosion, particularly in the way packages and derivatives were handled. Even in Ireland, this was evident in the way they were willing to price land for a potential beyond any realistic value.

It is the nature of the job in a reformed banking structure that should dictate what these people are paid, not the nature of jobs in other sections of the private sector. The point has been made, not only in this House but elsewhere, that one of the problems in the commercial world in recent years was the way in which senior executives catapulted their remuneration into the outer stratosphere, compared to what others working in their institutions were paid. This was partly responsible for the decline in the system and was a sign of a decay in the way it worked. Rather than look at the pattern of executives elsewhere who have been infected by this approach, we must look to the nature of the banker's job in the modern changed environment the Minister is trying to establish. That should tell us what they should be paid. We should set the standard much closer to what a senior public servant or a chief executive of a modest semi-State body earns. These are not people at the cutting edge of technology. Banking is an age-old system and it was done best when done on the basis of common sense and prudence. It was about trust in relationships and bankers understanding the client and his or her needs as well as those of the bank. We must get back to that.

I am not reassured by the Minister's resumé, not having read the report. He appears to be telling the House that we can expect the top earners in the Irish Stock Exchange, or somewhere similar, to tell us what these people will get. We are in a different world. Let us not forget that what is unique about banking is that when things go wrong he and I and the rest of the taxpayers in the country must step up to the mark, take the knock and guarantee the banks. They are not on their own in a raw world where they must take all the consequences of their bad decisions. As we have seen to our cost, we carry the consequences of such decisions.

I am disappointed the Minister will not give us some insight on what is contained in the document. If he was told by this committee that he must set banking salaries towards the high end of earners in the Irish Stock Exchange, he should tell the committee "No". What we are looking for is much more like a semi-State body, or senior public servant level, and that the banks be run on a different basis because the way banking went was an aberration. We want a much more modest approach to banking based on relationships, trust and a new model. The Minister should tell these people that if they want huge earnings, banking is not the world for them.

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