Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

First, in response to the Deputy's comment about the prison officer David Black, and in respect of the comment made by Deputy Kelleher, I have already responded publicly. I was beside the Deputy First Minister when he made his comments in Armagh unreservedly condemning the murder of David Black. He also made the point that the coming together of different elements of so-called dissidents with a warped mentality about the future of this island carries within itself the seeds of its own destruction. I hope the information available to the Deputy First Minister and the Northern Ireland authorities, together with assistance from the Garda in terms of whatever information is available from this side, will ensure that these people are brought before the courts as quickly as possible. That must be seen to be done.

With regard to the children's hospital, there will be a debate on this in the House next Thursday. Deputy Adams will have an opportunity then to ask more detailed questions of the Minister for Health, who will be here for that debate.

On the question of pensions for former employees of the pillar banks, the programme for Government sets out the Government's view that there should be a fundamental review of remuneration in banks that are subject to State support. That review is ongoing since the summer. Some additional assistance has recently been provided by Mercer to that review. The Deputy will have been notified of that by letter from the Minister for Finance some time ago. The Minister for Finance has set out clearly the legal constraints on him. The position is that these people retired from the banking sector prior to this Administration taking office. I understand the chief executive of AIB has written to former senior executives in recent days asking them to make a voluntary decision in regard to the pensions they receive. It is important to note that this Government has gone further than any previous Government by including all elements of the pay package under the salary cap. The current chief executive of AIB, for example, is subject to the cap of €500,000. The remuneration of the chief executive of Permanent TSB is also subject to the same cap.

It is also important to note that the story here has not been true or clear in terms of what has been portrayed. The transfer of €1.1 billion of nominal loan assets to the AIB pension fund was not to fund the extraordinary and, in my view, utterly exorbitant level of pensions to a number of former senior personnel within the pillar banks. It was to deal with the deficit that was going to arise due to the fact that 2,500 people were taking voluntary retirement from the bank. If that transfer had not taken place, the consequence would have been compulsory redundancies, which is a very different position. In the meantime, the small number of former senior executives would have continued to receive the extraordinary level of pension remuneration they currently receive. The transfer of €1.1 billion of nominal loan assets, which if they were sold at market value would probably have yielded approximately €300 million, meant that the voluntary retirement of 2,500 staff could proceed. Hopefully, following the decision of the chief executive to write to these people, they might decide to make voluntary decisions about the levels of the pension they receive.

In respect of what will happen in the future, the Government has gone further than any previous Government. The Minister is constrained in this regard legally in that pensions are regarded in a particular way under the Constitution. I will not comment on the issue of fairness which the Government will address, in so far as it can, in the presentation of the budget early in December.

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