FG Proposal in October on Banking Legislation Could have Prevented €1m Banker Bonus Payment

FF Govt Used Retrospective Law to take Money off OAPs, it can do the same for €1m Bonus Banker

The last Fianna Fail Government introduced retrospective legislation to legalise nursing home fees for thousands of elderly people in long stay care institutions and should, according to Fine Gael Leader Enda KennyT.D., adopt a similar retrospective approach to force the return of the €1m bonus paid to Irish Nationwide boss Michael Fingleton.

The Fine Gael Leader went on to point out that an amendment (see note below) proposed by Richard Bruton to the bank guarantee legislation in October last, which was rejected by the Government, could have prevented the payment of this bonus payment and could now be implemented retrospectively to achieve the same outcome.

“After huffing and puffing for thirty six hours about the Irish Nationwide bonus payment of €1m the Government have reverted to type and responded with a whimper to the outrage caused by this obscene payment.
Commissioning a report, in a month’s time, to deal with this very immediate issue is a pathetic yet unsurprising response from this Government.  It has been said many times before but the truth remains that this Government are always one report away from taking action on any issues of substance.

“The core of this affair is that a €1m bonus was paid by a Bank after it had to be bailed out by the taxpayer.  At a time when we were told that banks had to try to rebuild confidence and capital reserves Irish Nationwide were depleting both with this payment. It is not right and it is not fair that when thousands of families are facing sky high rates for personal debt, enormous fees to switch from fixed to variable rate mortgages and live in fear of losing their home that a select few at the top of Irish banking act as if they exist in a vacuum.

“Instead of being paralysed by events the Government should remember the speed and decisiveness they showed when retrospectively making nursing home fees legal.  When it came to legalising nursing home fees the Government had no problem acting.  I’m now challenging them to act with the same speed and adopt the Fine Gael amendment from last October and retrospectively give themselves the power to block this obscene bonus payment.  Rather than kick the matter to touch they have the opportunity to act decisively and deal with the matter in a swift and decisive fashion.”