"Michael Flatley is really from Chicago..."
Jimster
Cruffiton.etsy.com 6,896 Posts
Ireland repping.
Jimster
Cruffiton.etsy.com 6,896 Posts
Comments
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/ireland-business-blog-with-lisa-ocarroll/2010/dec/14/ireland
The row over the ???40m (??34m) Allied Irish Banks bonuses deepened today after extraordinary claims that executives of the bank had tried to rush the payments through as the bailout loomed.
Irish Times columnist Fintan O'Toole says a source at AIB told him the bonuses were "a looting of the bank by management before the government became involved in the institution".
The source claims the bonuses were deliberately brought forward by two months because the bank was about to be taken into public ownership and knew bonuses might be legally challenged after the bailout.
The claims will be a further blow to embattled finance minister Brian Lenihan who last night announced that he was blocking the payments which were due to be made this Friday to 2,400 staff following legal action by trader John Foy who took a test case to the high court.
O'Toole says in a lengthy column that management agreed the bonuses in the beginning of 2009 in respect of work done in 2008, the year the bank in effect went bust.
"The relevant staff were individually called to an unexpected meetings with senior managements on 29 January, 2009 ??? two months before they would normally have been informed of their bonuses.
"They were told that the bonus for 2008 was being brought forward and would be paid out on 25 February ??? two months before the normal date.
Staff told to stay silent
"The staff were explicitly told that the meeting they were then having constituted a verbal contract which was legally binding.
"In other words, senior managers at the bank created a legal obligation to pay the bonuses in AIB as it was effectively being nationalised. Staff were told to keep all of this to themselves."
In early February 2009 the Irish government agreed to put ???7bn into Allied Irish Banks and Bank of Ireland - dependent on the two banks cutting salaries and bonuses.
A source at AIB told the Guardian today that bonuses at the Capital Markets division were always paid in February's pay round or March, ahead of other staff at the HQ.
O'Toole went on to say there was a feeling among AIB staff that the bonuses were only fair because staff at Anglo Irish, which was nationalised in January 2009, had been paid bonuses in December 2008. Anglo Irish was effectively insolvent when the bonuses were paid.
The Irish Times columnist is a respected author who has written extensively about the banking collapse.
Banking sector still out of control
Today's column will add further grist to the mill for financial commentators who feel the government still hasn't got the banking sector under control.
Anglo Irish, which is being closed down, still employs 1,000 staff while the government's attempts to downsize the banking sector are moving at a snail's pace, noted Cliff Taylor, the editor of the Sunday Business Post at the weekend.
"The government have not taken on the banks at all ??? How long can it take to sell one small building society, the EBS, for example. Anglo Irish Bank still employs over 1,000 even though it is writing no new business and the bigger banks still have fleets of executives," wrote Taylor.
Lenihan went on RTE's Morning Ireland today to defend the late decision to intervene in the bonus row and block the ???40m payouts.
He knew about he bonuses two weeks ago and offered no view of them ??? he gave a written answer in the D??il on 1 December, revealing details of the bonuses ??? a time when the media's attention was completely consumed by another story, the IMF-EU bailout.
Lenihan says he didn't 'drop the ball'
He insisted that nobody had "dropped the ball" in his department by not noticing how badly the bonus story would play with the public and he couldn't control media reaction to it. (See written answer here).
He agreed the bonuses were "galling" especially to those suffering welfare cuts following last week's draconian budget.
He said he spent the weekend researching the matter and discussed options with "the attorney general and with the Taoiseach" and concluded there was a way he could provide the board of AIB with a legal reason why they should not make these payments. Foy will be paid his bonus in spite of the intervention by Lenihan. The minister said Foy's award would stand as the attorney general had advised that the "dishonouring of the judgment by the board was not permissible".
The bank has already received ???3.5bn in government funding and is on course to be nationalised by Christmas, according to today's Irish Independent after attempts to raise ???9.8bn from other sources failed.
Skel?
SKEL????
Tough economy. I had to lay off the guy who manages my Facebook vanity pages. :hated_it:
joaxs
We got 47 words for being drunk / bollixed, fluthered, twisted as a skunk / just gimme some black stuff and I???ll get plastered / And if I see that wanker banker I???ll kill that bastard / he was specky four eyes when we were kiddies / trying to get a peek at some little scauger diddies / now these queer hawks have our country arseways / Gotten so bad I???m drinking on Sundays / shoulda killed that snapper when we were back in grade school / all you guvment mollycoddles can suck my Peter O???Toole / Now give me a loan that???s interest free / or we???ll send your ass to Chicago with Mr. Flatley
I love this guy. He's right about everything.
Then a friend sent me this vid.