THESE DAYS, so many fragile situations weigh heavily on citizens’ shoulders, as once again we hold our breaths for another harsh and cold winter budget; a budget that will be applauded by the troika and, no doubt, resented by the vast majority of folk who had nothing to do with the madness and greed that has brought us to our current circumstance. I, like so many, simply find some of the following statistics sickening in the context of 10% of Irish citizens living in food poverty.
A total of 57 employees of two state-owned financial institutions – Irish Life and Permanent TSB – earn basic annual salaries in excess of €150,000. This is coupled with more than 70 ‘retired’ CEOs of the same banks who receive pensions of €300,000 a year. Finance minister Michael Noonan said that 38 employees of Irish Life receive annual salaries in excess of €150,000, with two earning more than €400,000. It was also disclosed that 19 employees of Permanent TSB earn more than €150,000 a year. The bank’s recently-appointed chief executive Jeremy Masding earns a basic salary of €400,000, while nine employees take home between €200,000 and €399,000 a year. Mr Masding also gets a further €60,000 paid towards his pension scheme. He was also in receipt of vouched expenses of €52,034 to compensate for costs incurred in relocating toIrelandearlier this year.
Last year, Irish Life’s chief executive Kevin Murphy received a salary of €500,000 and ‘other remuneration’ of €86,000. Mr Murphy’s pay package breached the government’s own pay cap of €500,000. The CEO is 62 and will retire on an annual pension of €305,000.
Earlier this month, it emerged that six executives at Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC), including chief executive Mike Aynsley, are receiving annual pay packages of more than €500,000. In all, 86 employees of the former Anglo Irish Bank – now wholly owned by the state – earn €150,000 or more each year as a basic salary.
What if all the old board members of both banks were fired? What if their pensions were slashed because the pension pot was suddenly hugely under-funded? What if many were sued by bondholders, who also demanded criminal and parliamentary inquiries into what went wrong? What if the guilty men were punished, Irish banks were cleaned up and our national recovery began? … but sadly, we know that all of this is just a fairytale.
The bust banks have been propped up using our money. The pension funds of former bosses were topped up using our money. And the salaries of some bank workers stayed just as artificially high as they were at the height of the boom – all thanks to our money.
And still it goes on. The four banks employ more than 1,700 on salaries exceeding €100,000. Of these, 200 get more than €200,000 and 65 receive over €300,000, while their new chief risk officer will take home half a million-plus. All this to employees of a bust bank bailed out by taxpayers.
Finance minister Michael Noonan claims he is powerless to do anything about bankers’ pay and pensions, yet he pays the piper on our behalf but refuses to call the tune. Astonishingly, he buys into the laughable notion that we have to pay huge salaries to attract people capable of winding down a failed investment firm or of running two banks to serve just four million people.
Minister Noonan and his cohorts are trapped in an ideological mindset controlled by these smarter, more confident and tougher bankers whom they are supposed to oversee – amazing!
