Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

First, Mr. Boucher's pay and conditions were set out by the previous Government and the previous Minister for Finance and I inherited them as a matter of contract. As I stated, the Government is a minority shareholder, as it was fortunate enough to attract private investment from Canada and the United States into the bank. The Deputy will notice that since the private investment came in, while the shares were offered at 10 cent, earlier in the week they were trading at 16 cent or 17 cent. Therefore, it is difficult to put a case that a good job is not being done in there at present. The Deputy is accusing me of not attacking Mr. Boucher and other people personally. That is not the way I do politics. I do not organise lynching parties for individuals. That might be the way Sinn Féin does politics but I do not.

There is a general issue that the cost base of all the banks is too high. I have instructed the banks to get their cost base down and am giving them the kind of flexibility that my colleague in government, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, gave to the public service unions, wherein one size does not fit all. There are different ways of getting down the cost base and I want them to match their strategies to the circumstances of the individual banks. However, I want to get the cost base down and will do so. As for the former Minister, Joe Walsh, I do not know anything to suggest he is not a good director or that he is not carrying out its functions as a director.

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