BOUCHER PENSION:FORMER MINISTER for Agriculture and public interest director on the board of the Bank of Ireland, Joe Walsh, is a member of the committee that approved chief executive Richie Boucher's €1.49 million pension top-up.
Mr Boucher announced on Wednesday that he was to effectively forgo the top-up following an extended public controversy that culminated in Taoiseach Brian Cowen saying that if he did, it “obviously would help in public perception terms”.
The decision on the pension top-up was taken by the remuneration committee of the bank’s board after Mr Boucher took up the role in February of last year.
The members of the committee are Mr Walsh, Declan McCourt (chairman), Pat Molloy, Rose Hynes and Terry Neill.
Mr Molloy is the governor or chairman of the board. He was appointed to the board in June last year and as governor in July. It is not clear if he was on the board when Mr Boucher’s package was agreed.
Mr McCourt is chief executive of the OHM automotive group and a former chairman of the bank board’s audit committee. He was appointed chairman of the remuneration committee last August.
Ms Hynes is a solicitor and company director who was appointed to the board in 2007. Mr Neill was appointed to the board in 2004 and is a member of the governing body of the London Business School. Mr Kennedy is a former partner with KPMG who was appointed to the board in 2007.
The contract agreed with Mr Boucher that his appointment was for five years and gave him the option of retiring at its end, when he will be 55.
The bank’s accounts for the nine months to the end of December 2009 include details of his contract and state that his arrangements “now include an option to retire at age 55 on a pension of circa 59 per cent of his salary.” His salary is €623,000.
In order to accommodate this, the bank staff pensions fund had to be paid an additional €1.49 million. The money will now be returned to the bank.
