State ‘no control’ over bank boss’s pay

The Government will not use its share in Bank of Ireland to oppose a €843,000 pay package for its boss, Richie Boucher, because to do so would be an “idle symbolic gesture” according to Finance Minister Michael Noonan.

He said the State’s share in the bank is 14%, so voting against a renewal of Mr Boucher’s remuneration at the bank’s forthcoming AGM “wouldn’t matter, because it’s going to go through anyway”.

He was responding to questions from Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty, who said it was an “obscene salary from a bank that has only been saved because of the sacrifices of the Irish taxpayers”.