THE GOVERNMENT has asked PricewaterhouseCoopers to help devise options for redundancies at the banks to secure agreement between the Department of Finance and the lenders over the terms of severance payments.

The accountancy firm has been retained to help find options between the banks, which want to offer staff sufficient terms to secure enough voluntary redundancies, and the department, which is resisting departure pay-outs beyond public sector levels.

A department spokesman said that PricewaterhouseCoopers has been providing "analytical support to the department, on a pro bonobasis, on options for redundancy packages in the Irish banks".

State-controlled Allied Irish Banks (AIB) told employees yesterday that it expects to be able to disclose long-awaited redundancy terms for more than 2,000 staff within the next month.

David Duffy, the bank’s chief executive, said in an internal email to staff that the bank was close to reaching an agreement, and was working to finalise redundancy terms with the department.

“I hope to have the final issues resolved soon, and expect to be able to communicate with you all in detail within the next month,” he said.

“This timing is, of course, contingent upon the actions of other parties, but we are managing the process extremely tightly to increase our chances of meeting this timeframe.”

AIB said in April 2011 that it would seek more than 2,000 redundancies. However, it has been unable to make offers to staff in the absence of an agreement on severance pay with the department.

The Irish Bank Officials Association (IBOA) has criticised the continued delays in announcing terms.

“It’s extremely disappointing – it is now nearly 12 months since the bank announced the redundancies,” said Larry Broderick, general secretary of the IBOA.

“We have had our hands tied by the department by not allowing us to negotiate a deal with the bank.”

All redundancies should be voluntary, he said, and called for an early-retirement scheme and for the terms and conditions of the remaining staff to be protected.

Mr Duffy said he was aware that the long wait for a conclusion to the negotiations on severance terms had “fuelled considerable speculation and understandable impatience” among staff.

He said the redundancies had to be on the same terms agreed by the department with other banks in a similar situation.

Mr Duffy said the bank was also discussing issues with the IBOA.

The department wants banks to offer redundancy terms similar to levels offered to Health Service Executive staff who are offered three weeks’ pay per year of service on top of their statutory entitlements of two more weeks.

This is significantly less than redundancy deals offered by guaranteed banks, such as Anglo Irish Bank and Bank of Ireland, and foreign-owned lenders such as Ulster Bank and NIB in previous years.

“The Government’s position is that it is an inevitable but unfortunate consequence of the necessary restructuring of the banking system that job losses will arise,” said the department spokesman.

“Any redundancy package must be fair to both the employees in the banks and the taxpayers who have made a substantial investment in the Irish banks.”

Some €20.8 billion of public funds have been injected into AIB and its subsidiary EBS, with the State taking a stake of more than 99.8 per cent in the bank.

State-owned Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, formerly Anglo, set a cap of €175,000 on redundancy payments to staff last year.