Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The Minister for Finance outlined the position regarding this matter which came into the public domain during the past 24 hours before he was in a position to consider the appointment and report to the Government today. The Government reiterated its position of 11 March when it noted the content of the first report of the covered institutions' remuneration oversight committee which looked at salaries in this area and agreed to the report being available to both Houses of the Oireachtas and the public. It also agreed the Minister for Finance would write to the financial institutions asking them to revise their remuneration plans in such a way as to respect the salary cap of €500,000 or the amount recommended by the committee, whichever should be the lesser. We simply confirmed that was our position. I am sure discussions are ongoing between the bank and the Department, arising from that communication by the Minister in respect of correspondence that came into his office last night and was in the public domain before he had an opportunity to consider it. That is where matters rest. It is important, in the interests of effective management of the bank, which is in all of our interests, that we allow the process to develop with a view to finding a resolution that is consistent with the Government position.

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