Anglo pay increases - Taxpayers deserve full disclosure

It is understandable that the public should be exercised over the latest pay increases awarded to certain staff members of Anglo Irish Bank.

The bank is about to announce the biggest losses in Irish corporate history – somewhere in the region of €12 billion to €14bn. Astonishment is being expressed that anyone responsible for those losses should now be rewarded with salary increases.

Virtually everybody else in the country is expected to take severe cuts in the national interest. They are being called on to foot the bill for the collapse of our banking system. It is politically unsustainable that those most responsible for the banking fiasco should be rewarded.

In view of what happened at Fás, however, it is easy to understand how people would be perturbed about what is happening at Anglo Irish Bank. In this instance, a correct perception is vital.

Interviewed on RTÉ’s Prime Time on the night of his appointment to Cabinet, Pat Carey explained that he would be astonished if he thought that those responsible for the fiasco were being rewarded. He said he believed that those receiving the increases were a small number of specialist staff recruited mainly in England.

Mr Carey went on to explain that the Government is operating the bank at arm’s length in order to avoid any perception that it is interfering in the day-to-day running of the institution. That sounds suspiciously like one of the excuses being trotted out regularly by members of the Government for the difficulties and inefficiencies in the health service.

The current Government has taken over Anglo Irish Bank and it must not be allowed to shift the responsibility for this to others. The Government is responsible and it must ensure that the bank is run properly.

Alan Dukes, chairman-designate of Anglo, explained that there have been major staff cuts within the bank. All of the senior staff have been replaced, so there is no question of rewarding those who got the bank into the current difficulties.

He insists that the salary increases apply to a total of 70 people. Those include 40 members of staff out the 800 still working in Ireland, 20 of the 370 working in Britain, and 10 of the 80 working for Anglo in the US.

Those receiving the pay increases will be taking on extra responsibilities. They have essentially being promoted in place of those who have been removed, and the salary increase is commensurate with promotion elsewhere in both the public and private sectors. That would seem reasonable.

Unfortunately there is a perception that the increases are exorbitant and the staff members were already well paid. The bank must not be allowed to hide behind the idea that this is commercially sensitive information.

Anglo Irish Bank has been nationalised and the taxpayer is footing the bill and has a right to know who these people are, what jobs they are doing and what money they are getting. It is imperative that there should be full transparency.