Lenihan misled public on Boucher pension - Shortall

MINISTER FOR Finance Brian Lenihan has been accused of misleading the public by not admitting he approved the controversial €1.5 million pension top-up for Richie Boucher, chief executive of Bank of Ireland.

The Department of Finance acknowledged on Friday that Mr Lenihan approved Mr Boucher’s salary of €623,000 as well as his entitlement to retire at 55, which required the additional funds to be added to his pension.

Mr Boucher has since then announced that he will not retire at 55.

Labour Party TD Róisín Shortall, who obtained the information from the Department of Finance, yesterday, said that Mr Lenihan had breached his own guidelines by approving a pay package for Mr Boucher that was €123,000 above the €500,000 limit, and also for the top-up of the pension.

She said that Mr Lenihan and Taoiseach Brian Cowen had been “utterly misleading” in denying any knowledge of Mr Boucher’s situation last week.

“Brian Cowen portrayed it as something that had nothing to do with him . . . The Minister for Finance behaved recklessly in approving this package for a senior banker,” she told RTÉ yesterday.

The Government Chief Whip John Curran said that Mr Cowen had not misled the public. He also said that Mr Boucher’s salary was substantially reduced from that of his predecessor.

Fine Gael finance spokesman Richard Bruton said Mr Lenihan has powers to prevent bankers from dodging the salary cap and he should use them.

He said that an expert group had recommended that the Government should review a loophole under which banks can use directors’ pensions to circumvent salary caps.

“Not only did Brian Lenihan ignore the recommendation, he did the opposite,” said Mr Bruton.

He said Mr Lenihan should review the loophole and draft solid proposals to prevent it happening again.

“It has long been known that Fianna Fáil and the banking sector are closely intertwined. Brian Lenihan has only reinforced that connection by failing to prevent senior banking executives from feathering their own nests,” he added.