MINISTER FOR Finance Michael Noonan is to investigate how the deal to give former AIB managing director Colm Doherty a remuneration package of €3 million was put together. Taoiseach Enda Kenny said he had asked the Minister to consider the evidence.
He also emphasised a section of the Nyberg report which investigated the banking crisis. Mr Kenny quoted from the report that “people in a position to make decisions are and must be ultimately responsible for them regardless of what advice or suggestions they have received. The higher and more influential their position, the greater their responsibility.”
The Taoiseach said he was “absolutely appalled to hear of this latest banker payment scandal” and that it was allowed to happen at a time “when the people of this country own AIB”. The Government wanted to see “accountability” for what had happened.
Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams had called for the Government to introduce emergency legislation to “stop this obscene payment”, which he described as “subversion”. Mr Adams also claimed the “golden circle is as alive today as it ever was under the regime led by Fianna Fáil. Who were the public interest directors? Dick Spring, Declan Collier, Michael Somers, circle upon circle upon circle.”
Mr Kenny rejected the Sinn Féin call for legislation to halt the package of remuneration for Mr Doherty, who resigned in November. He said: “I do not know who was party to the discussions about Mr Doherty’s contract, remuneration and bonuses. That is gone. The payment has been made.”
He said the previous minister for finance “did not want the director of the bank to be appointed yet the government of the day was not in a position to prevent that happening”.
He had asked Mr Noonan to investigate it and establish “were the public watchdogs made aware of it. Was a copy of the contract made available to the then minister?”
Socialist Joe Higgins said it was unfortunate that sheer naked corporate greed was not identified as the major driving force that led to the insanity in the property market. He said the “herd instinct” referred to in the Nyberg report was the reckless pursuit of massive commercial and corporate profits for a tiny elite at society’s expense.
Mr Kenny said that nothing had been done for the past decade about the Dáil’s capacity to hold persons who, by reckless greed and whatever else, went off the rails completely, leaving the taxpayer to pay as a consequence.
The only way to deal with it was to hold a referendum to give the Oireachtas the power to get to the root of such questions, he added.
The Government, he said, would prioritise the referendum and give elected members the power publicly to seek accountability in respect of the facts.
He added that Fine Gael had spoken out on the issue in opposition.
He had said in 2003 that there was a crisis in the management of the public finances. Richard Bruton, as finance spokesman, had said in 2007 that indefinite spending growth could not be built on the back of a building boom.
“We now have the opportunity to do something about it,” he added. “And we will do something about it when we get the imprimatur of the people by asking them a question to give the Oireachtas the authority and the opportunity to hold to account people who should be held to account.”
Mr Higgins said that Mr Kenny and his party had not once raised opposition to the level of profiteering going on by developers and bankers on the backs of young working people saddled with 40-year mortgages.
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