Madam, – I am amazed at the latest move not to pay the bank bonus. The Minister warned the bank board the State would not provide any more support if the bonus was paid. If AIB had paid the €40 million, this would have saved the State billions and billions of euro poured in to support an ailing bank. Am I missing something? – Yours, etc,
Madam, – I have followed The Irish Timescoverage of the recent controversy surrounding the AIB bank bonuses for over a week now. And I read with interest your opinion piece "Payments could not be tolerated in light of €13.5bn bill for taxpayer" (December 14th). In the standfirst you state how it "emerged that AIB was paying €40 million in bonuses – an amount which understandably sparked outrage". I wonder, though, why you failed to highlight how it was actually a Fianna Fáil TD who exposed these bonuses.
Fine Gael and Labour have during this time expressed all manner of outrage at these payments and widely condemned the Government for not doing more to stop them. Dr James Reilly of Fine Gael and Pat Rabbitte attempted to claim that it was only due to the pressure that their party placed on the Government that this payment was stopped.
Nowhere in your paper have you recorded the fact that these payments would not have come to light were it not for Fianna Fáil backbencher, Chris Andrews seeking this information.
Fine Gael and Labour were quick to jump on the bandwagon, but credit should be given where it is due. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Can I suggest a glorious compromise regarding the AIB bonus issue? Pay allthe "entitled" ones in AIB ordinary shares at the 2008 value. Share the gain, share the pain. That should be fair. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Presumably the Ministerial order on bonuses to AIB executives includes directors? – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Whatever the individual merits of the claims by those in AIB for backdated bonuses (and I do wonder if the outrage would be as swift and merciless if these payments from 2008 were backpay to bank tellers), hearing one of the most highly paid and least effective or imaginative public servants on earth talk about large sums being “supposedly” earned is rather galling (Home News, December 14th). – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Is it true? AIB bonus payments cancelled. Can it be that at last our Minister for Finance has been chased out of his burrow to act on our behalf, as he was in fact elected to do?
Congratulations, Dr James Reilly. Shame on Brian Lenihan that he had to be pushed to do what was obviously the right thing. And why, as a matter of interest, was AIB not in a position to challenge this court decision? – Yours, etc,
Madam, – It appears that where there is a will there is a way.
I wonder was the Government’s decision to write to the board of AIB sparked by the forthcoming election?
Clearly, when the need arises our Government can actually act and further the board of AIB welcomed the “actions of the Minister for Finance”.
Could the Minister now consider writing to the IMF/EU to remind them that Ireland cannot afford a penal rate of interest if we are to continue to pay back Europe’s sacred bank bond- holders? – Yours, etc.
AIDAN RODDY,
Lambourne Wood,
Cabinteely, Dublin 18.