Shane Ross (Independent)

I wish to address a peripheral matter. I was absolutely staggered when I read in yesterday and today's newspapers that after its stand-off with the Minister for Finance, Allied Irish Banks was about to appoint an insider as its executive chairman. Of all lessons to be learned, I would have thought the banks and the Minister had learned that the single thing one did not want was an insider as executive chairman. Apparently, he is to be appointed for what has been called an interim period of at least one year. One of the problems with the banking system in Ireland has been that too many banks have fallen into the hands of one person with too much power. However, following a stand-off, AIB is going to commit exactly the same folly as other banks in Ireland. This is even more astonishing when one realises this is utterly contrary to all the best rules of corporate governance, one of which is that one should not have an executive chairman and that one should separate the two powers. It appears that this so-called compromise, which obviously is being well spun this time by the Department of Finance, not by the banks, in fact consists of the Government giving in again to the banks.