Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 306: To ask the Minister for Finance the position in respect of bonus or bonus like payments made by Bank of Ireland to staff since the introduction of the original blanket bank guarantee in September 2008; if the data which was not available in respect of Bank of Ireland for the preparation of parliamentary reply No. 156 of 16 December 2010, has since become available and, if so, will he provide this data; if Bank of Ireland has changed the designation of any payments which are supplementary to basic pay to commission, inducements, loyalty payments and so on; the number of such payments and the amount of same that have been paid by Bank of Ireland since the bank guarantee was first introduced; if such payments are foreseen for 2011; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1474/11]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I have been informed that information given to my Department by Bank of Ireland to the effect that no performance related bonuses were paid to staff was incorrect. It did not take account of contractual bonuses which probing by my Department revealed did in fact have a performance element. This failure by the bank led to erroneous information being placed on the Dáil record on 1 December 2010. The CEO of Bank of Ireland has written to my Department acknowledging the difficulties caused as a result of this misinformation and apologising unreservedly for it. I have been undertaking, as a matter of urgency, an intensive investigation of the additional payments made by Bank of Ireland since the introduction of the guarantee scheme and of additional payments which it may have intended making in the future. I am sure the Deputy will appreciate that the verification by my Department of all the relevant information supplied by the bank necessarily involves a substantial amount of time. On completion of this investigation I will make available to the Deputy, and the House, whatever additional information comes to light.

As I have previously stated, I do not accept that substantial sums ought to be paid in bonuses to senior staff of banks dependent on State support. Contractual obligations have in the past restricted my ability to deal with this issue in relation to pre-agreed payments or conditions of employment, but the Credit Institutions (Stabilisation) Act 2010 provides in Section 51 that in certain circumstances I, as Minister for Finance, may impose conditions on the provision of further State support to a Credit Institution. In particular I may impose conditions regarding the payment or non-payment of performance bonuses. I have already made clear in the AIB case that I will impose such conditions and I can assure the Deputy that I intend to adopt a similar approach to the provision of support to Bank of Ireland.