Banking earnings of over €1m for 21 staff in Ireland, report shows

A report by the European Banking Authority shows that 21 bankers in Ireland earned more than €1m in 2011.

In the UK, almost 2,500 bankers earned more €1m, while senior bankers in Spain had the highest average pay of any EU country in 2011m at €2.44m.

The EBA has proposed a cap of bankers pay in the EU of €500,000.

Newstalk Business Editor Ian Guider says US and UK banks operating in Ireland are likely to have paid out those high salaries here.

If you look through the survey deeper, it shows that most of the bonuses, most of the salaries, were paid out to people in investment banking," he said.

"They are the dealmakers, the rainmakers for all the banks - and they tend to be particularly foreign banks.

"They are more likely to be the people paying out this money."