NO SENIOR bank manager should earn more than the Taoiseach or the Minister for Finance, while the Government's scheme to underwrite the banks is in operation, Labour finance spokeswoman Joan Burton told the Dáil.
During the second stage debate on the legislation which was accepted by the Opposition, Ms Burton said she wanted to know what limitations would be put on the remuneration packages of bank chief executives.
Fine Gael spokesman Richard Bruton said the problem was "the dangerous flirtation with the property sector that has occurred in recent years.
"Those were in a position to exercise restraint on this in my view, failed to act. There is no doubt that the regulator repeatedly warned of some of the features that were exposing our banking sector in recent years."
He said the approach was "timely" and "we accept that there is a need, but we also want to see that there is very robust protection, that this new money, this new access to money is managed in a way that the taxpayer is protected to the maximum amount.
"That's a vital element that we have to get reassurance on and I don't think it will be enough for the Minister to say 'I am taking potential powers that I can use'. I think the Oireachtas will want to see the colour of the powers that you intend to apply, the sort of conditions that will be in place."
Minister for the Environment John Gormley said: "We are delivering an Irish solution to a global problem which fits our small open economy". He said that rather than following the lead of Britain or the US, "we in the Irish Government are convinced that we have a better remedy".
He said the "landmark decision we have to make here is about protecting all our irish citizens. It is about protecting our economy and giving ourselves a fighting chance to make a good recover from the global financial turmoil in which we now find ourselves."
Ms Burton said that under Irish constitutional law, power came from the Government and the Cabinet and not from a Minister.
"This Bill is an extraordinary blank cheque to the Minister for Finance, in conjunction with the Central Bank and the financial services regulator to, as it were, offer terms and conditions of support and guarantees to banks in an unprecedented way," she added.
The Minister had only barely sketched in the details of what the blank cheque might involve.
"We know that right around the country there are people losing their jobs at the rate of 300 a day. There are firms calling in people on a weekly basis, saying they may have to let them go, or put them on short-time or half-time."
Ms Burton said that the banks should supply liquidity for the real economic activity of the nation: the jobs, the businesses and the firms, not the speculators and the fat cats who had been making a killing for the past 10 years.
She said the Labour would seek a requirement for the publication of schemes under the Bill before they came into force.