Poll: Should caps on bankers' pay and bonuses be lifted?
The government is weighing up relaxing policies in place since the bank bailouts.
AFTER YEARS IN varying levels of state ownership, Ireland’s bailed-out banks are incrementally returning to private hands – inevitably loosening public claims over how they do business and pay their staff.
Bloomberg recently reported that, with wages elsewhere in Ireland slowly ticking up, government officials could revisit the restrictions that put a €500,000 cap on bankers’ salaries and barred those in leadership roles from receiving bonuses.
In order to attract the best staff, so the argument goes, banks need to produce attractive incentives in what is an international market for senior executives.
The government already relaxed the €500,000 cap in the case of Bank of Ireland’s incoming CEO, Francesca McDonagh, who will benefit from the same pay packet – worth just shy of €1 million – as ex-boss Richie Boucher.
But any relaxation of the rules will be a difficult sell given the banks’ inglorious records from the Celtic Tiger period and the subsequent billions in taxpayer funds pumped into keeping them afloat.
With that in mind, we’re asking Fora readers this week: Should caps on bankers’ pay and bonuses be lifted?
