The Green Party has said the return of a €1 million bonus by Irish Nationwide chief executive Michael Fingleton is “not sufficient” and he should resign.
Mr Fingleton bowed to mounting pressure yesterday evening and agreed to return the bonus paid by Irish Nationwide last November, weeks after the Government protected the banking system with the €440 billion guarantee.
The party's finance spokesman Senator Dan Boyle described the return of the payment as an empty gesture.
"He has too many issues to address, including his pension arrangement and his role in sanctioning unsecured loans given in dubious circumstances, that his departure from his position is still necessary," Mr Boyle said.
The board of Irish Nationwide is due to submit its review of the management of the building society to Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan next Monday.
"This report is not about, and cannot be about, justifying Mr Fingleton continuing in his job, it is about explaining why certain practices occurred in Irish Nationwide under his stewardship, and how such practices can be accounted for and then consigned to the past, so confidence in banking in Ireland can be restored amongst the citizens of the country and with international investors," Mr Boyle said.
The Green Party has also criticised Mr Fingleton’s pension arrangements through which he is the sole beneficiary of a €27.6 million pension scheme transferred out of the society to another retirement benefit scheme in January 2007.
Two weeks after his 2008 bonus payment was publicly disclosed, Mr Fingleton said in a statement yesterday evening that he would repay the bonus, but insisted that he was legally entitled to it.
The statement said that even though Mr Fingleton was entitled to the bonus payment, he wished to bring the issue to a conclusion “because of the effect on his family with a continuing 24-hour media siege on his home and also because of his concern for the effect it may have on the society”.
Mr Fingleton said the bonus he received was "a contractual and binding agreement with the society which he was legally entitled to receive and was entered into long before the implementation of the guarantee scheme".
Mr Fingleton had received a €1 million "pre-contracted incentive bonus" for 2008, which was agreed by the society last April.
He said in his statement that he was “pleased” to note the acknowledgment by Mr Lenihan earlier this week that “he could not be compelled to return this payment”.
A Department of Finance spokesman said last night: "The Minister for Finance notes the return by Mr Fingleton of his bonus payment to the society and considers it the correct course of action and in the best interests of the society."
Irish Nationwide is preparing to report its annual results and they are expected to show losses of close to €500 million on the building society’s €12 billion loan book which has a heavy exposure to the collapsing property sector.