Cowen accused of caving in over AIB appointment

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen was last night accused of caving in to AIB by allowing an insider to head the bank and put in place a “worrying” overlap of roles.

Opposition parties accused ministers of helping manufacture a row over pay in a failed attempt to hide the fact they had capitulated to bank bosses on there structuring.

Despite previous Government demands for an outsider to be in charge of the crisis hit bank after €3.5 billion of taxpayers’ money was pumped into it, Mr Cowen confirmed that AIB executive Colm Doherty would be promoted to managing director of the bank, but would see his pay fall from €633,000 a year to the €500,000 cap for new appointments.