OUTRAGE IN IRELAND As Bailed Out AIB Hands Out $50+ Million In Bonuses

The Business Insider ^ | 12/9/2010 | thejournal.ie

[FromLori]

AIB BANKERS WILL be paid €40m in salary bonuses this year – exactly six months after Brian Lenihan said: “We can’t go back to those mad bonuses.”

The news that AIB is to hand out the massive Christmas bonus – averaging around €16,700 to each of 2,400 ‘key’ staff – has been greeted with derision in the week that €6bn of cuts and taxes were announced in Budget 2011.

Yet only six months ago, Finance Minister Brian Lenihan gave an interview to the Sunday Independent claiming that banker fat cats would no longer be taking home huge bonuses while the Irish public paid off their debts. Minister Lenihan said in early July 2010:

Well, under the guarantee arrangement, as you know, the banks were forced to abolish the bonuses in recognition of the commitment made by the taxpayer and they couldn’t have these bonuses. And remember some of these generous bonuses incentivised much of the reckless lending that has led us here. We can’t go back to those mad bonuses.

And exactly a year ago, on December 8, 2009, a Department of Finance spokesperson told the Examiner that Minister Lenihan would “bring in legislation, if necessary” to stop bankers receiving bonuses after it emerged that former Irish Nationwide chief executive Michael Fingleton had received a €1m bonus. The Government said it was already adopting the recommendations of the recent Covered Institutions Remuneration Oversight Committee (Ciroc) report, that no bonuses would be paid in the immediate future.

[FromLori]

Related story’s

Why the Irish Crisis is Going Global

“And its public debt, about 65 percent of GDP, is far below Greece’s crushing load, which is 126 percent of GDP. Ireland’s debt levels are even lower than those in France, Germany and the United Kingdom.”

in full

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Why-the-Irish-Crisis-is-Going-usnews-4028366968.html?x=0

Up to €50 billion—nearly $50,000 for every household in the Emerald Isle

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704506404575592360334457040.html

Ireland’s Debt Servitude

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/ambroseevans-pritchard/100008812/irelands-debt-servitude/