Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The Government will explore all options available to it based on the facts to be established. It is a question of whether this was an arrangement that was entered into before the State guarantee scheme was brought into play; what authorisation there was for it by the board; in what way it was in the interests of the society that such an arrangement be made; and in what way were the fiduciary duties of directors discharged in that respect.

The Government is quite clear on the matter. The Government has put out its position regarding the question of remuneration for senior bankers or for people in building societies and we have already indicated the salary caps that should apply. What we are saying here on this particular matter is that the Minister, using the public interest directors he has appointed, will ensure that he gets to the bottom of this issue in terms of the circumstances that apply to it and decide on that basis what are the legal avenues available to him and what way can it be arranged that that issue can be dealt with satisfactorily. That is what he wishes to do to allay the public concern.

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