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EXTERNAL CANDIDATES were discouraged from taking the top job at Allied Irish Banks (AIB) by the general hostility towards bankers and negative publicity surrounding Irish banks, rather than by the €500,000 pay cap, Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan said.

Speaking before the American Chamber of Commerce’s annual Thanksgiving lunch, Mr Lenihan said the Government salary limit was not a serious factor in AIB not being able to recruit an outside candidate as chief executive. “The general cultural hostility to bankers and the waves of publicity surrounding banking in Ireland were an issue in losing two crucial candidates in the last year,” he told reporters.