Martin Conway (Fine Gael)

I concur with Senators Keane and Walsh on the issue of the Central Bank. I heard about the tender in question and was very troubled by it. What is also troubling - I ask the Leader to bring this to the attention of the Minister for Finance ahead of his visit to the House tomorrow - is the remarkable fact that AIB is proposing to pay its new chief executive officer a salary of more than €1 million. I also find it remarkable that nobody can be found in the free world to run this bank successfully for half a million euro. It sends out all the wrong messages. We are a small country of 4 million people and I cannot understand the logic behind paying somebody a million euro to run a bank.

Perhaps the Leader could inquire of the Minister for Justice and Equality the status of legislation on white-collar crime. When will we see a white-collar criminal jailed in this country? When will some of the delinquent top bankers and developers who brought this country to its knees end up behind bars? Other speakers correctly contrasted this with the case of Mrs. Treacy, who is now behind bars in Portlaoise for refusing to allow the ESB to cut down trees on her land. It is a disgrace that this woman is in jail while the people who wrecked this country are still walking around free. Perhaps when the Minister for Justice and Equality is in the House he would update us on the Garda investigations into events at Anglo Irish Bank and the other fiascos that have happened in this country.