Cutting pay for bank chiefs would mean higher taxes, says minister

Slashing lucrative pay and pension packages for executives at bailed-out banks could trigger tax hikes and spending cuts, Transport Minister Leo Varadkar has warned.

As the row continued to rage over salary deals that leave six managers at the former Anglo Irish Bank on more than €500,000 a year, Mr Varadkar’s intervention provoked anger, with Fianna Fáil branding it “perverse”.

The minister insisted the executives at nationalised banks were not funded directly by taxpayers but were in the same position as semi-state employees.