Former Tánaiste Dick Spring defended his €1,000-a-day fee as a public interest director at AIB, claiming it was “reasonable for the effort” he put into it.

The Oireachtas Finance Committee has accused the Public Interest Directors of Bank of Ireland of ''stonewalling'' them and ''going native''.

Bank of Ireland has paid its Public Interest Directors more than a half a million euro each since their appointment in 2009.

Public Interest directors at Bank of Ireland are due to face the Oireachtas Finance Committee today.

Bank of Ireland’s two public interest directors will face major criticism by TDs and senators today over the bank’s decision to hike interest charges on its credit card during the Christmas period.

Public interest directors on the boards of bailed-out banks have been summoned to the Oireachtas finance committee.

Public interest directors on the boards of bailed-out banks have been summoned to the Oireachtas finance committee, it was confirmed today.

Public interest directors in bailed-out banks are to be hauled before the Oireachtas finance committee to explain their duties and roles, amid criticism of lenders.

Public interest directors on the boards of bailed-out banks have earned over €1m since being appointed but have never met or communicated with the finance minister about their roles.

“A BIG change in banking culture” was what Finance Minister Brian Lenihan promised back in February 2009 when a major bailout was announced.

THE two Bank of Ireland public interest directors embroiled in the €1.5m pension top up to group chief executive Richie Boucher have refused to comment on the controversy.

IT’S probably expecting too much of the banks’ public interest directors to be thorns in the side of the culture that blithely stumped up the €1.5 million pension top-up for Bank of Ireland boss Richie Boucher.

THE 2020 Strategy Committee for agri-food, forestry and fisheries is drawn from senior experts and participants in all aspects of the sector.

ARCHAIC accounting systems mean the Health Service Executive cannot manage its €15 billion budget properly.

Allied Irish Bank has appointed former tánaiste Dick Spring and the chief executive of the Dublin Airport Authority Declan Collier as non-executive directors.

Former Agriculture Minister Joe Walsh and the former head of the Department of Finance Tom Considine have joined the board of Bank of Ireland.

IRISH banks are expected to formally appoint two board members from the panel of 12 names put forward by the Government before Christmas.

A FORMER tánaiste and a number of ex-ministers are on the Government panel from which the six major banks and building societies covered by the guarantee scheme are to select additional board members.

THE costs for specialised building projects will be raised after legal wrangling over a Limerick sewerage scheme landed taxpayers with an €83 million bill, the Environment Minister has been warned in a private report.

TÁNAISTE Brian Cowen last night insisted he made no criticism of the Minister for Health over her financial management of the €16 billion health budget.

A consultant has been hired by the Government to study two diverse accounting systems operating within the health service.

THE State’s financial watchdog yesterday warned there is a “problem” with the way hundreds of millions of euro is poured into local authority projects without full scrutiny.

FINE Gael and Labour yesterday boycotted a private briefing with Finance Minister Brian Cowen over allegations his department breached its confidential system for costing proposals put forward by political parties.

BURGERS and chips for stakeouts, pay-offs for snitches and wages for our man in Moscow are just a few of the potential destinations of taxpayers’ money allocated to the Secret Service.

The North’s Police Oversight Commissioner has claimed that policing reforms in the North are under serious threat due to a campaign of intimidation by dissident republics.

THE €3.5 billion tax shortfall in the past two years was blamed on the economic downturn by Charlie McCreevy’s top civil servant yesterday.

Decommissioning of paramilitary arms is "indispensable" to the future of the Northern peace process, the Irish and British Governments insisted today.