Sinn Féin calls on Government to oppose salary of Bank of Ireland chief executive

Sinn Féin's finance spokesman Pearse Doherty called on the Government to oppose the €843,000 remuneration package paid to Bank of Ireland chief executive Richie Boucher at its agm later this month.

He said the amount involved was “obscene”, given that the bank had only been saved by the sacrifices of the Irish taxpayer. “Despite all the hardship endured by ordinary people . . . by hardworking people across this State . . . this bank continues to show contempt for the Irish people.”

Mr Doherty said Minister for Finance Michael Noonan would have the option at the agm, on April 25th, on the Irish people's behalf, to cast a vote based on his shareholding in the bank. He would have a vote on the resolution to endorse the remuneration packages.

“Yesterday he told me that he has not yet considered the matter,” Mr Doherty added. “He needs to do what the Irish people expect from him and what he should have done last year.’’

Mr Noonan said he did not believe "in gesture politics or idle symbolic gestures", adding that the State had 14 per cent of Bank of Ireland. "How we vote on this issue at the agm does not matter," he added. "It is going to go through anyway.''

Mr Noonan said he had to take into account the kind of signal it would send to the wider investment community, which was anxious to invest in Ireland through the activities of the IDA and the purchase of property.

Mr Doherty asked what “sort of signal does it send to those who were crippled by the Minister’s austerity policies”. Mr Noonan said he would consider Mr Doherty’s submission and let him know what the Government would do in due course.

Symbolism
Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins said: "I thought symbolism was very important. We have not heard anything else over the past two days.''

Mr Doherty said that on foot of a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the Department of Finance, he received a copy of the advice given to the Minister in respect of last year's agm. It was clear, he added, that his officials did not want him to vote for Mr Boucher's package, given that he had not received responses to the Mercer report on remuneration at bailed-out banks.

“One year later, we know that not one cent of the basic salary of €843,000 has been reduced,” he said. “We know that people in Bank of Ireland and other banks have lost their jobs but, at the highest level, not one cent has been taken from salaries.’’