Sir, – The banks are once more bleating that the State-enforced pay caps for them are "hampering. . . efforts to keep senior staff" (Bank of Ireland chief financial officer to quit as pay cap bites, Business, June 25th).
The report details that Andrew Keating is to leave Bank of Ireland after 15 years to move into a different sector and his remuneration in 2018 was a paltry €531,000.
This is more than 10 times the average wage in Ireland and banks/ executive bankers seem to think being held to a pay cap makes them hard done by!
They would do well to review their apparently short memories and look back to the events of 2008 which had such a severe impact on Ireland as pointed out by Brendan Murphy in his letter (Letters June 26th, Missed chance to cut €200bn national debt).
Do the bankers at the top of these organisations truly believe that paying ridiculous sums of money will get them a better class of executive officer?
If the banks are reliant on huge salaries to ensure they have the management to meet their business target and shareholder expectations then they may need to review how they are conducting their business. A good business is not, nor should it be, reliant on paying massive sums to its executive team, rather it should be reliant on the delivery of its product to its customers. If anything the targets and expectations are met by those on the ground driving delivery of those services. Those are the workers they should be worried about retaining because of pay issues, not executives.
Abigail Disney recently discussed the pay of Bob Iger, chief executive of the Disney Corporation, in which she criticised the bonuses he received while praising his performance.
She highlighted that taking a proportion of the incredible sums he was paid and distributing it down through the organisation, all employees could have received a pay rise and there would still have been money left over for him. While Irish bank executives are not at that level, they might do well do consider Ms Disney’s words before complaining about their pay and bonuses. – Yours, etc,
DESMOND GILHOOLY,
Sandycove, Co Dublin.