Taoiseach called to account over banks again

DÁIL SKETCH:PENSIONS FIGURED prominently in the Dáil yesterday when the House returned after the two-week Easter recess.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny painted a grim picture of the State’s finances when he called on Taoiseach Brian Cowen to reverse the €1.5 million pension top-up paid to Bank of Ireland chief executive Richie Boucher.

Kenny spoke of the “hundreds of thousands of people in our country out of work ... thousands and thousands of people, as we speak, scrabbling to put the few cents together to meet the increased rate in variable mortgage repayments”.

Cowen insisted that the money paid to the bank executive was not a personal payment.

“Contrary to how this is being portrayed, this is a payment into an overall fund which provides for pensions of most Bank of Ireland staff,” he said.

Labour leader Eamon Gilmore was unimpressed. The Taoiseach, he said, made it sound as if the top-up was for porters and tellers.

Fine Gael’s Olwyn Enright asked the Minister for Social Protection (formerly social welfare) Eamon Ó Cuiv about defined benefit schemes which failed the minimum funding standards.

The Minister outlined measures taken by the Government, adding that an implementation group, charged with developing legislative, regulatory and administrative strctures, would hold its first meeting next month.

Enright referred to the legal action being brought against the State by Waterford Cyrstal workers. They were alleging, she said, that the State had manifestly disregarded its obligations under an EU directive on insolvency.

“The department will defend this action vigorously,” said Ó Cuiv. “Foolishly,” observed Labour’s Róisín Shortall.

The Labour leader, meanwhile, asked the Taoiseach if he had been informed of the high-risk and sloppy lending practices at Irish Nationwide during his years as minister for finance.

“Certainly not,” replied the Taoiseach. The perceived wisdom in the early part of the decade was that there was a need for an independent regulatory system, he said. With considerable understatement, the Taoiseach added that this practice had not served its purpose well.

Fine Gael’s Richard Bruton returned to the same theme when the House debated the Central Bank Bill. The Irish Nationwide revelations, he said, had “reminded us of everything that was rotten ... the way institutions were run as personal fiefdoms”.

Those who ran the institutions had not suffered any consequences for what happened, said Bruton.

“The consequences for taxpayers, mortgage holders and people looking for jobs is extraordinary,” he added. “Ordinary people have been brought to their knees and they want accountability now.”

Irish people were looking to other countries, he said, adding that there were 42 bankers in jail in the United States.

In Iceland, those responsible had been found to be negligent by a supreme court judge, he added. A visibly angry Bruton said that the negligence was similar to what had been seen in Ireland.