AIB severance deals - Redress society’s ills

IT is tragic that 2,000 people will lose their jobs at AIB. The bank’s executive chairman David Hodgkinson, reporting a €10.4bn loss, suggested the bank should be “reasonably generous” on severance packages. Figures based on up to eight weeks pay per year’s service, plus statutory redundancy, were bandied about.

One of the most provocative things about our economic collapse is the inequity of it all. Some people seem unaffected yet others struggle to survive.

Figures like those suggested at AIB are unheard of in most of the economy. They are even more bizarre when you consider that the bank depends on taxpayer bailouts for funding. Payments on this level would add to the sense of injustice simmering right across this society as they are the exception rather that the rule. A similar argument can be made about semi-state staff expecting windfalls if those companies are privatised.

AIB staff from the boardroom to the cash counter may not like to hear it but sooner or later the Government is going to have to take a stand on creating a more equitable society and this is as good an issue as any. It is not about punishing bank employees but about redressing some of the terrible wrongs in this country.