Proposal to cap bankers’ pay rejected

THE Government has voted down a proposal to cap top bankers’ salaries so they could earn no more than the minister for finance.

Labour party finance spokeswoman Joan Burton had suggested executives at all banks propped up by taxpayers’ money should receive no more than the e250,000 salary of Finance Minister Brian Lenihan.

She said it was laughable for Transport Minister Noel Dempsey to tell the Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis the Government would get tough on bankers if it would not curtail their earnings.