Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

We welcome the proposed restriction on the payment of exorbitant bonuses to higher executive officials in the banking industry. Most people in society cannot comprehend why one would get a bonus after virtually destroying the country and the bank for which one works. We all know people - most of them are women - who receive an appallingly low income for working in call centres and shop floors. Their only additional source of income is the bonus they receive at the end of the year. It is very seldom €20,000, to be honest. It is usually between €2,000 and €5,000. It is always based on aspects of employee performance, such as the amount of business he or she has brought in. It is a welcome source for income for such people in the run-up to Christmas and in early January. It would be deeply and grossly unfair if the bonuses given to workers on low incomes were taxed at 90% as a result of our efforts to ensure certain people do not get massive bonuses. Indeed, those who brought down the country and wrecked the banking system should not get any bonus at all. We have to be conscious of the possibility that such people will discover additional loopholes at some stage in the future. We have to ensure that does not happen. That is why we have to be on our guard at all times. We need to avail of all ways and means of protecting the public purse. I do not think anyone would suggest we should claw back 90% of the bonuses paid to people on low incomes. The gross incomes of many of these people, who work in new industries with which we are just starting to come to terms, increase when they receive bonuses related to their performance over the year as a whole. It would be unreasonable to tax such bonuses at a high rate. The average person is not worried about such bonuses. He or she is conscious of the difference between a low-paid worker who is doing a strenuous job and the type of bank official who swans around enjoying a lifestyle that does not seem to have been affected by the national downturn and the collapse of the banking industry. People are looking for fairness in the treatment of people in both categories.

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