Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)

The Deputy has put many questions together, but they are all legitimate and fair. The former CEO of AIB had been discharged by the bank and received his severance package in November 2010 in the lifetime of the previous Government, so there was nothing this Government could do about it. We have done our best to find out the full facts of how the remuneration package was built up. While I have some of the facts, I cannot assure the House that I have the full facts at the moment. For example, even though my predecessor showed the House that the cap on Mr. Doherty's salary was €500,000 at the time, there was also a separate stream of income contributing to his annual income. That arose from the fact that in his previous position in the bank he had exceeded his pension pot. The agreement made with him was that, rather than a stream of money being put into a pension fund which was already at full benefit, the stream was given to him by way of secondary income. That continued even though my predecessor assured the House that his maximum salary was €500,000 - which, of course, it was - but he was silent on the other stream of income which in effect was treated by the Revenue Commissioners as a second salary. It was taxed and PRSI was paid on it in the normal way. When it came to computing his severance package, there were obvious difficulties. I am not convinced that I have the full picture.

Another issue which arose was that the gentleman had a long and satisfactory service in the bank. As the Deputy knows, the position historically with bank employees was that they would retire at 60 years of age. When he was made CEO of the bank his contract was not time limited, so when he ceased to be CEO his expectation as a long-time bank official was that he could continue to 60 years of age. As a consequence, he had certain rights in terms of remuneration up to 60 years of age, so the package became very large.

I have announced that I want a director and management renewal programme from each of the covered institutions. I also want information about salaries, remuneration, severance packages and everything else. To be quite frank, I cannot give the Deputy assurances that there are not legal problems in restricting severance packages. When I get the information I will decide what approach to take. My position in principle, however, is that the amount of money paid to the former CEO of AIB was an absolute disgrace. It undermines any concept of social solidarity that - when we are asking the poorest people to contribute and are telling them that everybody should contribute - somebody walks away with €3.5 million.

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