Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is unbelievable. It is not our fault that we are seeking logic where there is none in the Government's policies. It does not make sense. Níl dabht ar bith go gcodlóidh an na hAirí go sámh anocht, cé nach mbeidh codladh ar bith ar aithreacha agus máithreacha mar go mbeidh siad ag luí sa leaba agus imní orthu fá dtaobh den méid atá rompu maidin amárach.

We must take our hats off to the Government because it has been consistent with the banks, and it is clearly on their side. Ministers indicated the recommendations of the Mercer report would be implemented and bankers' pay would be cut, yet top bankers were allowed to make savings by firing low-paid staff, closing branches and cutting customer care. At the same time, the likes of Richie Boucher, the head of Bank of Ireland, continued to pay himself in excess of €800,000. We can provide the facts and eliminate all the bull we have heard from Ministers in this Chamber over the last number of months. Not one of the 2,500 bankers earning above €100,000 in the banks bailed out by this State has taken a penny of a pay cut in base salary this year. Earlier this year the Government refused to use the State's shareholding in Bank of Ireland to force Richie Boucher to take a pay cut.

The Taoiseach should riddle me this. He has no problem standing here and telling the citizens who put him in office that the young unemployed must take a cut and tighten their belts, that elderly people must do with less or that those on disability pensions must have less. He has no problem telling children they must soak up the cuts being dished out. Yet he has a problem turning up to the Bank of Ireland annual general meeting and using the power vested in the Government as a shareholder to say to Mr. Boucher that his more than €800,000 in remuneration is not on, as this country is broke and we are making difficult choices.

The Government's priorities have been exposed. How do the Taoiseach and Tánaiste justify to themselves and the Irish people the fact that a 24-year-old, under the Government's policies, can live on €100 per week after today but Mr. Boucher can pay himself over €800,000?

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