Booing, slow hand-claps, shouts of fury – Permanent TSB’s Cook feels the heat

As the clock ticked towards 2pm, the mass walkout from Permanent TSB Group Holdings plc's annual meeting began. The sound of booing and slow hand-clapping filled the air, along with a few expletives as chairman Alan Cook pressed on with the electronic voting for the motions on the agenda.

“Shame on you!” screamed one shareholder as they exited the ballroom of the Ballsbridge Hotel.

“It’s a f***ing disgrace,” said one angry woman as she disdainfully tossed away the handheld electronic device given to her so she could register her vote.

“You’re no better than a bloody civil servant,” she shouted at Cook, who by this point had been on his feet for almost 2½ hours and was starting to fray around the edges.

Anger and frustration
The reason for the walkout? A lot of anger and frustration had been aired by shareholders on topics from the proposed closure of its pension schemes to mortgage arrears to executive pay. Many felt they weren't getting straight answers to their questions.

Shareholder Arthur McGuinness suggested that the meeting be adjourned for six weeks so that proper answers to all the questions asked could be prepared. “Hear, hear,” responded the shareholders.

Cook agreed to put it to a vote but warned that it would be decided by the proxy in the room for Minister for Finance Michael Noonan, who owns 99.2 per cent of PTSB's shares.

The shareholders called for a show of hands instead but Cook pressed on with the electronic vote. Lo and behold, the Minister’s proxy voted against the adjournment, prompting the walkout.

Disgust and anger
It had begun with a number of shareholders standing up and one man who began working for the former TSB Bank at the age of 18 articulating their disgust at the decision to close their defined benefit pension scheme.

This is part of a plan to reduce total payroll costs by 8 per cent to comply with a direction from the Government earlier this year.

“Where is the honour in reneging on the contractual obligations you made with me?” he asked Cook.

He said their pension scheme had been “consigned to the rubbish heap”, something that would have a “massive lifelong impact” for the workers.

He had paid for a pension of €20,000 a year but was now likely to receive only €6,000 to €8,000 annually.

PTSB will cease its contributions to the defined benefit schemes later this month and the matter has been referred to the Labour Court by the trade unions.

Cook said PTSB would have been liquidated if it had not been bailed out by the State in 2011, a scenario that would have seen the pension schemes wound up.

The chairman said a recent actuarial report showed that it would have to increase its contribution threefold to return the schemes to the black, which was not a runner.

“We have an obligation to save the bank and we have to take corrective action at this time,” he said.