The sign over the door is gone — but the debts remain
The Anglo Irish Bank sign may be gone, but the scandal surrounding the financial sector’s pay culture is alive and well.
Just a day after revelations that yet another senior banker, this time AIB’s ousted managing director Colm Doherty, received a massive pay-off to leave his post, an end-of-an-era moment was allegedly taking place at the Anglo Irish headquarters in Dublin.
As one of the most notorious symbols of the economic crash was taken down while those damaged by the institution looked on, the organisation’s chief Mike Aynsley insisted the move was as much about a culture change in the bank as it was a mere cosmetic name change.
However, families struggling to come to terms with yet more senior banker pay-offs, the potential selling off of the country’s assets and the ongoing presence of the IMF may beg to differ.
As our pictures show, coming on the same day as the publication of Colm McCarthy’s cost-saving report, the bank name change can be seen as a case of going (ESB), going (Bord Gáis), going (Aer Lingus), gone (Anglo).
But the reality for the public is that, with yet more financial problems being heaped upon us, Ireland can just as easily be described as broken, broken, broken, broke.
* FOCionnaith.direct@examiner.ie
