Ex-Anglo staff earning over €500k...

Half a dozen people at IBRC — formerly Anglo Irish Bank — earn pay and pension packages in excess of €500,000 a year, it has emerged.

The revelation provoked fury among victims of swingeing home help cuts, who say they are suffering because the Government has got its priorities wrong.

Kathleen Comerford, 89, who has had her meagre one hour a week of home help taken from her, expressed shock that vulnerable elderly people were being targeted.

Ms Comerford, who has severe arthritis and crippling back pain, survives on the basic state pension and has no family in the Cork area where she lives.

She fears she may now have to go into a home — at a much greater cost to the State.

“Why do they treat people at the bottom like us in this way when they let those people away with their fat pensions?” she asked.

“It is terribly cruel the way that we are being treated, especially when you see what other people are getting away with.

“I got a terrible shock when I was told my home help wouldn’t be coming back — and then I saw iton the news about their €500,000 pensions. I couldn’t believe it. It’s just one hour a week — is that really too much to ask?

“My back is very bad and it means I can’t really clean up on my own. I have no family in Cork and it is very upsetting. I’ve been crying a lot because of this.”

Ms Comerford’s case was among those raised in the Dáil yesterday by Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin, who said people were suffering real hardships as a result of the “savage” cuts.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny said it was a “very difficult area in which to make any kind of adjustment without individual difficulties arising”.

The clash erupted as the row over Government inaction in the face of massive pension payments at the bailed-out banks continued to rage.

IBRC had already disclosed that chief executive Mike Aynsley had a basic salary of €500,000 plus pension benefits of €128,000 and expenses of €38,000 each year. But, in response to a parliamentary question by Fianna Fáil TD Michael McGrath, it has emerged that another five employees are on total packages of €500,000, including salary, pension, and allowances.

6 Anglo bankers earn more than half a million. Fingelton got 27 million added to his pension.What a country.

— rita martin (@brucearva) November 7, 2012

The five members of staff all joined the bank since it was nationalised in 2009.

Moreover, there are: 12 employees on packages of between €300,000 and €399,000; 24 on packages between €200,000 and €299,000; 44 on packages between €150,000 and €199,000; 146 on packages of between €100,000 and €149,000; and 774 of IBRC’s staff across Ireland and the UK are earning up to €99,000 a year.

IBRC chairman Alan Dukes has defended Mr Aynsley’s package, insisting the chief executive was “absolutely” worth it.

Mr Kenny insists he cannot act against “fat cat” pensions.