Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this matter for discussion.

Everybody will be aware at this stage that the Bank of Ireland general court will take place in the Burlington Hotel tomorrow. Resolution No. 2 relates to agreement of the report on directors' remuneration as outlined in the annual report 2012. The Minister of State will be aware that the Government has a 15% shareholding in Bank of Ireland. The current CEO at the Bank of Ireland receives a basic salary of €690,000, which is well above the Government cap of over €500,000. He also receives other payments, including pension contributions, bringing his package to more than €800,000 per annum. This CEO is one of the architects of the lending bubble at Bank of Ireland.

The Minister for Finance has indicated his intention to abstain on the aforementioned resolution. I put it to the Minister of State, Deputy Hayes, that abstention is not policy and in this case is not good policy. We need to send a clear message that these outrageous salaries by a bank bailed out by this State and its taxpayers are not acceptable. I urge the Minister to abandon the policy of abstention and vote "No" in this instance.

I am concerned that the Bank of Ireland has lapsed into its old ways. These excessive payments to its executives are over the top. It has also been revealed that the bank is using market research to trick people into giving up their tracker mortgages so as to improve its bottom line and pay super salaries to its top executives. I ask that the Minister exercise the State's shareholding to ensure this does not happen and to raise this issue at the annual general court tomorrow.

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