Seanad debates

Thursday, 2 December 2010

10:30 am

Photo of Paschal DonohoePaschal Donohoe (Fine Gael)

Senator Bacik used an appropriate phrase - appalling vista - and I would like to apply the same phrase to the report published by the Central Bank yesterday on the review of bonus payments made to senior bankers. We have discussed at great length in the House the appalling mistakes made by the Government in regulating the banking sector over recent years. It is almost beyond contemplation that the same mistakes are still being made when these banks are in receipt of tens of billions of taxpayers' money and are one of the direct causes of the economic depression in which the country almost finds itself. The report published yesterday states, "The link between remuneration and risk management remains poorly defined, poorly articulated and poorly governed" and goes on to say: "Unless remuneration arrangements are given a more definite form, banks risk repeating past errors."

We have seen to our cost what these errors have been and the effects they have had on ordinary taxpayers. Now we have a report from the Central Bank saying the banks and bankers have not learned from their mistakes and the same culture is still in place.

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