A GOVERNMENT Minister has called on Bank of Ireland chief executive Richie Boucher to voluntarily forgo a €1.5 million top-up to his pension.
Minister for Social Protection Éamon Ó Cuív said he could not understand why Mr Boucher and people like him, who had made such a mess of the banks, did not forgo some of their entitlements.
"If I was in that situation that is what I would do," he told RTÉ's The Week in Politicslast night.
Asked about Mr Boucher’s pension payment, Mr Ó Cuív said the bank chief executive apparently had a contract with that pension clause in it.
“But there is one thing that I don’t understand, and it is one that nobody seems to consider in this country, and that is that somebody like Mr Boucher, and other people like him who made such a mess, would not just say ‘I forgo this because of the present economic situation’,” said the Minister.
He said the Government did not have the legal power to force Mr Boucher to forgo the payment, but he added: “I am asking him now. I cannot understand how him, and other people who had very good contracts, but when everything came out have made a mess of the banks and our economy; I cannot understand why they are not voluntarily, even if they have legal rights, handing back some of what they have and saying that they would forgo things into the future.”
Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan said over the weekend the pension top-up was not a matter for him to intervene on. While he could not justify it, there was nothing he could do about it.
Fine Gael deputy leader and finance spokesman Richard Bruton claimed Mr Lenihan could intervene on the matter. “Decisions in these institutions and at the Fianna Fáil Cabinet table brought the country to the brink of ruin. There must be some form of recognition by the banks’ boards and management of their responsibility for the economic crisis and just how offensive this pension top-up is to ordinary taxpayers.”
Mr Bruton said the payment sent the message to the public that nothing had changed, and that would undermine the sense of commitment now required to deal with the country’s problems.
“Alongside this there are questions for the Minister for Finance to answer as to what he knew about this payment and when. Was he consulted about this and did he give his approval? As was the case with the pay increases at Anglo-Irish Bank, the Minister can intervene, and he needs to make a statement immediately clarifying these matters.”
Labour Party deputy leader and finance spokeswoman Joan Burton also accused Mr Lenihan of not standing up to the banks.
“Brian Lenihan has come into the Dáil and told us solemnly many things that have subsequently turned out to be rubbish. One of those things was that bankers’ salaries would be capped at €500,000. We know now that’s not the case.”
