Brian Lenihan with, right, Kevin Cardiff Secretary Genral of the Department of Finance, and John Corrigan of the NTMA.
From today’s Irish Times:
THE DEPARTMENT of Finance told AIB last July that if it proceeded to pay 2008 bonuses to staff in its capital markets division, it should not make any reference to or infer that Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan approved them.
Ann Nolan, assistant secretary at the department at the time, told AIB’s head of human resources John Conway in a letter last July the Minister had “no role” in approving the bonus payments at the bank.
“In the event that AIB decide to proceed with the awards, it should be noted that no reference to the Minister for Finance having approved the payments should be inferred or made,” said Ms Nolan, who is in charge of banking policy at the department.
The AIB Timeline
DECEMBER 21st, 2008 Government announces that it intends to recapitalise AIB and to take partial control of the bank’s board.
JANUARY 29th, 2009 Senior AIB staff are unexpectedly summoned to meetings and told that their bonuses – totalling €40 million for 2008, due in April, are being brought forward. Staff are told that this information constitutes a verbal contract.
JANUARY 31st, 2009 A report in The Irish Times by John Collins reveals that AIB staff in the bank’s Capital Markets Division have been told of their bonus payments. However, following a query from Collins, AIB then announced that the payments were being deferred.
FEBRUARY 11th, 2009 Government announces that it has agreed terms for its €3.5 billion recapitalisation of AIB