Gormley: €2m salary admission ‘a PR disaster’

BANK of Ireland chief executive Brian Goggin’s televised admission that he would still earn close to €2 million this year was a “PR disaster” which sent out all the wrong signals, Green leader John Gormley has said.

But Mr Gormley insisted politicians’ pay and expenses were not scandalous, although he conceded there was much public anger about this issue, too.

“It is not a source of scandal, but it is a source of anger,” he said on the issue of political remuneration. “I have called for reform of the system of payment to politicians and that is going to happen.” Mr Goggin’s admission came during an interview with RTÉ’s Six-One News programme on Thursday night. In the interview, he said his pay this year would be “substantially down” on his 2008 package of circa €2.9m to “less than €2m”.