Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has insisted bonuses and deferred payments of €1.2 million to executives at Anglo Irish Bank, were “contractually committed to”.
He said they were from 2009 and before the nationalisation of the bank. Mr Gilmore said bonuses in the bank had been ended since nationalisation.
Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald said in the Dáil that of 50 senior people employed at the bank at the time it was “at the height of its dangerous casino capitalism”, 22 were still in employment there, and 19 of them were on salaries of more than €175,000. She added there were developers who were “pocketing €200,000” a year.
Figures revealed in The Irish Times showed six of the bank's executives received deferred bonus payments totaling €925,000 last year. Four staff also received just over €296,000 "in lieu of committed remuneration arrangements" on their appointment to the bank.
Ms McDonald told the Tánaiste: “You and your colleagues are quick to attack people on welfare payments, accusing those out of work of making a lifestyle choice.” She said the Governnment “is offering some lifestyle opportunity to officials and senior employees in a toxic bank that has brought us to the brink of ruin”.
However, Mr Gilmore insisted: “The Government does not have a strategy of targeting people on social welfare or on low pay. On the contrary, this Government is supporting and defending those who have lost their jobs and who have found themselves on social welfare and people on low pay.”
He did not defend “for one moment” the bonuses paid to Anglo Irish personnel. “This Government will not stand over the feather bedding of anybody in any part of the banking system. The Government is winding down Anglo Irish Bank, and . . . this Government will act fairly and proportionately to everybody.”
Anglo Irish Bank paid senior staff members €1.2 million in deferred bonus payments and other contractual fees last year, according to unpublished figures.
Six executives received deferred bonus payments totalling €925,000 last year which were awarded prior to the bank being nationalised by the previous government in 2009.
In addition, four staff received a total of just over €296,000 “in lieu of committed remuneration arrangements” on their appointment to the bank. The payments were separate to their salaries.
These types of payments are typically made to new staff who lost bonuses or other fees from their previous employer as a result of moving jobs.
The Department of Finance had previously indicated that Anglo paid a much smaller sum – just over €270,000 – to five staff in deferred bonuses during 2010.
However, when different figures came to light during the summer, Minister for Finance Michael Noonan requested an urgent report on the matter from Anglo.
A spokesman for the department said it has since received a report from the bank and is satisfied that the different figures arose from the classification of payments, rather than any misrepresentation or omission of payments.
“The position still remains that no performance-related bonus scheme is in operation in Anglo since nationalisation in 2009,” a department spokesman said.
The spokesman added that all bonus payments were “contractual entitlements” and it was not envisaged that the bank will need to make any repayments to the exchequer.
A spokesman for Anglo Irish Bank also confirmed that the issue related to classification of payments and added that the bank no longer operates a performance-related bonus scheme.