Irish Nationwide managing director Mr Michael Fingleton received the bulk of the £770,000 (€977,698) paid to the society's two executives last year. The mutually-owned society does not disclose individual director's remuneration packages but its annual report shows that Mr Fingleton and company secretary Mr Stan Purcell shared salaries and bonuses worth £590,000 and pension contributions of £180,000. Mr Fingleton is understood to earn the larger pay package. Mr Fingleton told The Irish Times he had "no plans" to make this disclosure in the future.
The society's board of six directors shared fees of £119,000, an average of almost £20,000 each for their services to the society.
The society also announced the appointment of accountant Mr Terry Cooney to its board of directors.
Fewer than 100 of the society's members attended its brief annual general meeting in Dublin yesterday to hear Mr Fingleton's upbeat assessment of its future prospects.
One member, Mr Derek Collins, asked Mr Fingleton whether the society could avoid future adverse publicity in relation to home repossessions. Mr Fingleton said the society always aimed to avoid confrontation with customers and that repossession was a last resort to recover assets. "Inevitably these things happen because individuals won't pay you anything. You can write it off or go for the asset and we can't adopt the first option," he said.
Another member asked whether Irish Nationwide was paying its staff the market rate and providing adequate training facilities. Mr Fingleton assured the member it was paying the market rate to staff.
