Rest of year will remain ‘difficult’, says AIB boss

The chairman of AIB has said he expects the operating environment for the financial sector to remain extremely difficult for the rest of this year.

Dermot Gleeson made the comments in a letter to shareholders to coincide with the publication of the bank’s annual report for last year.

It revealed that group chief executive Eugene Sheehy received a salary of €1.15m in 2008 – a reduction of 45% from the €2.1m he received in 2007.

Shareholders will vote on the Government's recapitalisation plan at a meeting at the bank's headquarters in Dublin on May 13.