FORMER IRISH Nationwide chief Michael Fingleton is coming under renewed political pressure from the Government to repay a €1 million bonus, five months after undertaking to do so.
The Department of Finance said last night that Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan backs Irish Nationwide in its efforts to recover the money. Mr Fingleton promised in March to voluntarily return the money, even though he was “entitled beyond any doubt” to receive it. He says several issues are outstanding in relation to the matter and the question of repayment does not arise at this time.
The disclosure by The Irish Times of his failure to repay the money prompted severe criticism from the Opposition.
While Labour finance spokeswoman Joan Burton TD called on Mr Lenihan to clearly state the action he intends to take as a result of Mr Fingleton’s failure to repay the money, the Minister himself made no comment yesterday.
“The Minister has been advised by the chairman of Irish Nationwide that they are pursuing the repayment of the €1 million from Mr Fingleton,” said a spokesman for the department. He said “yes” when asked whether Mr Lenihan supported these moves by the building society.
There was no further comment from the society, which said on Monday that it wrote on a number of occasions to Mr Fingleton seeking the return of the money.
Irish Nationwide paid the bonus to Mr Fingleton only weeks after the State guaranteed the entire Irish banking system last September. Dr Michael Walsh, former chairman of the society, has said the business “cannot survive” without the guarantee.
“The payment of a €1 million bonus to Mr Fingleton in the same year that the Nationwide was a beneficiary of the Government’s €440 billion bank guarantee scheme was an outrage and should never have happened,” Ms Burton said. “When the disclosure of the payment emerged earlier this year, it was public and media pressure, rather than any action on the part of the Government, that shamed Mr Fingleton into promising to repay the bonus.
“Despite the promises made by Government Ministers, there has been little real regime change and little change of attitude in most of the financial institutions who have benefited from the bank guarantee scheme.”
Fine Gael finance spokesman Richard Bruton TD said it was appalling Mr Fingleton would renege on the commitment he made. “The State can’t go back on what it has done, but at the very minimum we’d expect that this commitment would be honoured,” he said. “To be getting a payment after the taxpayer had extended a guarantee seems to fly in the face of everything that is fair and reasonable. He made a commitment which I think people accepted that he was going to honour. It’s not acceptable at a time when ordinary people are facing very severe constraints and are having to dig deep into their pockets to protect the financial system.”
A spokesman for Mr Fingleton did not return calls yesterday so the nature of the outstanding issues remains unclear.
