Michael D'Arcy (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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Question 87: To ask the Minister for Finance his views on placing a tax on bonuses paid to bank executives in banks which received the State guarantee, similar to the proposal from the United States in relation to senior executives in a company (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12666/09]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The position is that all salaries and bonuses paid by financial institutions are taxable in the normal way. It would not be open to the Government to impose tax retrospectively on such payments already made. The Deputy will be aware that I recently published the report by the Covered Institution Remuneration Oversight Committee (CIROC) which recommended reductions in prevailing base salary, bonus and pension levels for chief executives, chairpersons and ordinary board members that the Committee considered to be, in many cases, markedly excessive. The Committee report, that with the exception of the Irish Nationwide Building Society where the CEO was paid a pre-contracted incentive bonus of €1,000,000 in relation to 2008, no bonuses will be paid to chief executives or the senior executive management teams in relation to performance in 2008/2009.