Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 17 June 2014
172. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Finance further to Parliamentary Questions Nos. 149 of 13 December 2013, 184 of 28 January 2014, and 172 and 174 of 15 April 2014, if before replying, he or his officials made any attempt to contact the banks in question to ascertain the information; and if not, the reason for same. [25784/14]
View answerMy officials have had numerous contacts with the banks in connection with disclosures around Remuneration, both linked to your specified Parliamentary Questions and in an effort to best keep informed the general public, investors and other stakeholders about the restructuring taking place at the banks. As you know it has been a stated policy objective of the Government to ensure that banks reduced their cost bases so as to be best positioned to support their return to profitability and the recovery in the economy.
The Mercer Report published last year and the subsequent direction to the banks to reduce their total remuneration costs by 6%-10% formed a central plank of that effort and as I have indicated on numerous occasions, all the banks met this directive. They did not all meet this requirement by similar means, but all had to navigate complex and difficult industrial relations processes, with staff current and former, ultimately contributing significantly to the effort.
Providing detailed data on the remuneration of thousands of staff at particular points during the year and particularly in different formats, is a time consuming task that diverts bank staff from their day to day roles. However it is perfectly reasonable for the State as owner, to expect significant remuneration disclosures on an annual basis which is why I requested that the State owned banks provide such information for end 2013, either in their published accounts or on their websites. I understand that the State owned banks have recently put this information on their websites. It can be found at the following addresses:
AIB:
http://www.aib.ie/servlet/BlobServer/document.pdf?blobkey=id&blobwhere=1391512598815&blobcol=urlfile&blobtable=AIB_Download&blobheader=application/pdf&blobheadername1=Content-Disposition&blobheadervalue1=document.pdf.
ptsb:
http://www.permanenttsbgroup.ie/~/media/Files/I/Irish-Life-And-Permanent/Attachments/pdf/2014/salary-remuneration-data-as-at-311213.pdf.
