Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I do not think it is acceptable that former executives of Anglo Irish Bank or any of the other banks which had to be bailed out with Irish taxpayers' money should be on pensions of more than €0.5 million per year nor do I, the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance think it is acceptable that executives of the current IBRC should be on salaries of that scale. That is why the Minister for Finance told the IBRC in April that those salaries should be reduced and why he has undertaken a full review of the salaries being paid. The Deputy knows that because the Minister wrote to the finance spokespersons of the political parties in this House in the summer informing them that review was underway. In recent weeks, he secured the assistance of financial advisers from Mercer to work through the various options as to how this will be dealt with. This is not acceptable to the Government and the people of this country who have had to suffer the consequences of what these banks did and the way in which they were managed. It is not acceptable that former executives of these banks are on these kinds of pensions nor is it acceptable that current executives of IBRC, in particular, are on these levels of salaries. It is being reviewed by the Minister for Finance and it is very much in hand by the Government.

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