AVIVA WORKERS’ entitlements were being set aside to sustain the excesses of elites, Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams claimed.

Company chief executive Andrew Moss had claimed there was a culture of entitlement in Ireland and it must change, he said.

“He is on a salary of £1.8 million sterling, with the award of at least £1 million in shares and other perks last year,’’ Mr Adams added. He said Taoiseach Enda Kenny should have met Aviva representatives, while IDA Ireland and other State agencies should have gone through the company’s business plan.

Mr Kenny said he did not determine the salary scales for Aviva’s employees and he was concerned about the situation in terms of the State’s competitiveness.

“This is the difficult road the Government must travel with the people to ensure the country remains competitive and that we can protect jobs, create new ones and achieve my ambition by 2016 of proving that this is the best small country in the world in which to do business,’’ he added.

Mr Kenny said it was an awful day for Aviva’s employees.

“Those of us who have served in this House during the years will have experienced the shock, anxiety and consequences of job losses of any scale,’’ he added.

Mr Kenny said IDA Ireland had been instructed by Minister for Jobs Richard Bruton to work with the company where it could.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said he was disappointed that the Taoiseach did not engage with the company, given the concerns he had expressed about the company in the Dáil last September. “Given the scale of the job losses announced, close to 1,000, I do not get a sense from the Taoiseach’s comments that there has been real engagement by the Government with the company to either restructure or otherwise avert some of the job losses announced,’’ he added.

Mr Kenny said the intention to restructure Aviva’s 12 businesses across Europe had been notified to the previous government in 2009, adding that Mr Bruton had been in touch with the company’s managers. During the discussion on the job losses, there were heated exchanges between Mr Kenny and Mr Adams relating to former IRA prisoner Thomas McFeely who developed the Priory Hall apartments in Dublin.

Mr Kenny said 300 people from the apartment complex, built by an “acquaintance’’ of Mr Adams, were forced to stay in a hotel because it was a fire hazard.

Mr Kenny said the developer had blatantly flouted the planning regulations to build a firetrap.

“That is a defamation and should be withdrawn,’’ said Mr Adams.

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (SF) said his party wanted the matter addressed. “That man should face the full rigours of the law,’’ he added.

Mr Kenny said Mr Ó Caoláin had always been accurate in his views about what should be done.

“He will not stand by people living in a firetrap with that anxiety and concern,’’ he added.

Describing the Taoiseach as a “disgrace’’, Mr Adams said he had been asked serious questions and had come out with “this nonsense’’.