We’re not a closed economy so we could potentially get someone in from a successful foreign bank, like Lloyds TSB or Santander, sans the salary cap. Just sayin’.

True, thats why I said “Irish Banks”. Irish banks will have a competitive advantage in an Irish market. BofI’s investment news yesterday is a testament to that.

For as long as we continue living in a capitalist society, people will want to be paid more and more. People used to working at that level, are used to living in large homes, wearing fancy suits and driving large cars. C’est la vie.

They should offer these jobs as FAS internships :o)

Running a bank is a business, not a public service. People quite often work their jobs because they want money, and not purely for advancing towards altruistic goal. I’m guessing since you made that comment you’ve never worked because you needed/wanted money? And that every job you’ve ever done has been purely for the good of the people you’re serving? Same questions go to the rest of the moralising gobshites in the comments section.

Offer jobs as FÁS internships? Sure, let’s fix a bank by employing someone who no one else will hire. He/She is obviously competent enough to handle billions of euro worth of bad debts and stop the bank from wrecking the fragile Irish economy. You should be Finance Minster Jane. Really.

I’ve never had a job that pays €500,000, that you can be sure of. I can understand people leaving the country who can only get internships or unpaid work, but because half a million euro isn’t good enough? That to me is a disgrace and a slap in the face to people struggling to find paid work.

What I was implying was that if they lowered the salary the people who go through the effort of working their way up to these senior positions are doing it because they love the work, and it’s that kind of attitude that’ll make the system better.

And buddy, chill out, seriously. Note the smiley face. I’m not actually implying they fire all these highly trained people and replace them with interns. You should be the Minster for not being able to take a joke. Really.

Will you get a grip!

No-one who even looks remotely capable will be “crucified”, “villified” or used as a “scapegoat”.
They will be be royally feted for showing the way home out of this mess.

Even the bonus-ridden chancer in charge of RBS now has barely had a shot fired over his bows despite his leadership still losing the company one billion Sterling in the first year.

“However, you get what you pay for. Peanuts and monkeys and all that.”

They were being paid over 500k before this mess and we still got monkeys.

Spot on !!!

Politics of anger, eh, Michael?

I don’t understand, myself, how someone could turn down €500,000 a year. But if this pay cap is somehow a deterrent for anyone looking for a job, then clearly some other company is paying much more. I’m not qualified enough to comment, but it seems – if that is the case – that the Government is looking for world expert bankers to replace the hierarchy that fell into disrepute. Well in that case, they are probably earning more elsewhere, and it would be hard to entice them.

I doubt Elderfield would make these comments, without any basis for them.

“These fuckers should be paid €50,000 a year until this mess is over, with €1,000 deducted every month until their “Bank” starts lending into the economy and supporting the recover instead of behaving like the parasite they have become over the past three years!”

Why on earth would they want to do that? Presuming you’re not suggesting that we force them to do that (i.e. forced labour..?), how would you get someone who’s services are worth a helluva lot more to work for so little, relatively speaking? What’s stopping them from leaving the dead bank that’s only paying them €50k/year and getting a job that pays more? Mid-level management would get paid more than that like.

People seem to think that wages are arbitrarily decided by some fat, top hat-wearing, cigar-smoking Capitalist in an investment bank in The City or some bearded Trade Unionist sitting in Liberty Hall. They’re not – basic economics and a touch of common sense will tell you otherwise. They’re decided by how much people (a.k.a “the market”) are willing to pay you to provide a service. If you’re the only one who can do a certain job and that job/service is in high demand, your pay will be through the roof. If your job’s an easy one that a lot of people could potentially do, then it’s not gonna be so high. Hence why a executive of a bank is paid more than the cleaner of the banks offices.

When we’re putting billions of taxpayer’s money at risk in hiring a person to helm a bank such as AIB, then we surely want the best person possible to run it…? The best person in this instance is worth more than €500,000 p.a., as the market as shown (being other possible employers in this instance). It’s a sad fact of life, but a fact nonetheless.

Fare more politely put that my comments and you’re spot on.
We’ve seen the incompetents attracted to these overpaid positions.

We need to assess exactly what we’re getting for our money and benchmark it.
But I suspect we’ll find that world-wide, bankers are incompetent and reckless and overpaid.

You’re forgetting that the banks under our ownership are IN COMPETITION WITH banks that aren’t, and those banks can afford to offer prospective Chief Execs a lot more than €500,000 p.a. Hence why we can’t get a former CEO of a successful bank in to help turn around AIB et al.

>”Their inefficient monetary mismanagement over the years has helped cause the financial mess we are in .”

Eh not quite, we’re not talking about recruiting the management of AIB from the last decade, we’re talking about trying to get a new board of management in from a successful banking background (i.e. a bank that wasn’t utterly destroyed in the last 2/3 years).

See the flaw in your logic yet? You can’t expect anyone to want to do a horrendously stressful job when you tax the bejaysus out of them and pay them less than they could get at a bank that isn’t as riddled with toxic loans as AIB is. Neither you nor I would do that, so down off your high horse and gain an understanding of incentives while you’re at it.

80% tax on the CEOs and board members of companies who actually turn a profit? I think you may have a slight flaw in your logic there.

The salary cap shouldn’t be considered on its own. Not every bank in the world is screwed, so maybe it’s not a bad idea to be head-hunting CEOs from foreign *successful* banks so they can effect some real change and savings. Is it not worth paying someone a 6 figure salary increase if they can save the tax payer a seven or eight figure amount more than a local inexperienced or inept person?

1. that amounts to a rise in corporate tax. Not going to help job creation/retention and FDI.

2. Why a 80% tax ONLY for finance, why not for all wealthy people?

3. 80% for any high earning group is too high. Third rate of tax of say 50% would be more appropriate. That’d push the marginal rate to about 60%. At our current 41% tax rate, the marginal rate is already about 50% because of all the other taxes on top of it. We want to encourage, not discourage work.

4. Putting all this in place just pushes up the price for potential candidates. They’ll demand more money to compensate for all these taxes.

What’s a banker? Someone who works in a bank. How many do you actually know? Gross generalisations are useless.

That’s a f”cking ignorant moronic thing to say. 99% of us who work in Banks didn’t cause this mess.

I pay taxes and have had my shares wiped out by my bosses actions too, but I’m a moronic banker by your definition? Clown.

This is illogical.

Sweeping things under the carpet and leaving it to the Old Boys Network to sort out is what got us into this mess in the first place.

The market is telling Elderfield that none of the rest of the overpaid incompetents want the job.

Which tells you all you need to know about ambition and ability in the so called “talented” sector of the banking world.

They all scaled the heights by office politics and glad-handing and that’s all their good for, actually solving serious problems is something “consultants” or “middle management” or “Human Resources” deals with.

The top boys don’t crease their Charvet Shirts worrying about the business, only about their position at the table at their next social event.