Bank directors to be asked if AIB and BOI are acting in public interest

Four directors – including former Tánaiste Dick Spring – will be questioned by the Oireachtas Finance Committee on whether the bailed-out banks are acting in the public interest.

DIRECTORS FROM AIB and Bank of Ireland who were appointed to ensure the bailed-out banks act in the public interest will be questioned by TDs and Senators for the first time today.

Former Tánaiste Dick Spring will be among the four directors who will appear before the Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform.

The four directors are likely to be asked about the high salaries paid to senior executives at the banks. It was revealed this month that both AIB and Bank of Ireland are paying a large number of staff members more than €100,000 per year.

The Bank of Ireland directors may also be asked about the bank’s decision to hike credit card interest rates by up to 4 per cent.

Tom Considine and Joe Walsh, the public interest directors at Bank of Ireland, will be questioned first from 9.30am onwards. Dick Spring and Michael Somers of AIB will appear before the committee at 12.30pm.

Former Fianna Fáil government minister Ray McSharry, now the public interest director of Permanent TSB, was questioned by the committee yesterday and told the members that there would be no write-downs for people who are unable to pay their mortgages.

Sinn Féin’s Finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty called on McSharry to resign after his appearance at the committee, saying he was not serving the public interest in his role at the bank.

Today’s committee will be livestreamed on the Oireachtas website and can be watched here.

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