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Financial Regulator gets 600K payoff.

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  • 11-02-2009 11:13am
    #1
    JonathanAnon
    Closed Accounts Posts: 23,718 ✭✭✭✭


    Just listening to Pat Kenny there. Has Shane Ross on with him at the moment.
    Turns out that the Financial Regulator Pat Neary got 200K payoff to step down, and additional 600K golden handshake, with a pension of 140K every year for the rest of his life. Is there no end to this lunacy, does the government realise that ordinary people have to work for years to put this money into the state ????


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    #2
    mike65
    Closed Accounts Posts: 88,978 ✭✭✭✭mike65


    *shruggs*

    A clip round the ear would be cheaper and yet would be a criminal offence, while Pat Neary has of course done nothing wrong ;)


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    #3
    jmayo
    Registered Users Posts: 13,125 ✭✭✭✭jmayo


    JonathanAnon wrote: »
    Just listening to Pat Kenny there. Has Shane Ross on with him at the moment.
    Turns out that the Financial Regulator Pat Neary got 200K payoff to step down, and additional 600K golden handshake, with a pension of 140K every year for the rest of his life. Is there no end to this lunacy, does the government realise that ordinary people have to work for years to put this money into the state ????

    Jonathan how long have you lived here, all you life perhaps ?
    Haven't you figured it out yet ?
    We don't do responsibility, especially at our top levels be it in public or lately in private sector financial institutions.
    It doesn't matter how much you screw up, you deserve your lump sum payment and your fat pension. It is the rules.

    Perhaps you even get another public salary along with your fat pension if you were a good boy and didn't screw up.
    It is our role as taxpayers to make sure they have the money to give to these departing employees.

    Tis a great little country we have :rolleyes:


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    #4
    ednwireland
    Registered Users Posts: 14,315 ✭✭✭✭ednwireland


    jmayo wrote: »
    Tis a great little country we havehad :rolleyes:

    fixed that for you
    great when i came here in 1997 ruined in 11 years by FF

    My weather

    https://www.ecowitt.net/home/share?authorize=96CT1F



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    #5
    Liam Byrne
    Closed Accounts Posts: 18,163 ✭✭✭✭Liam Byrne


    mike65 wrote: »
    *shruggs*

    A clip round the ear would be cheaper and yet would be a criminal offence, while Pat Neary has of course done nothing wrong ;)

    Nothing "wrong", maybe, but he didn't do his job - what he was paid to do!

    So he should be fired, with no payoff and a miniscule pension at best.


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    #6
    Darsad
    Registered Users Posts: 679 ✭✭✭Darsad


    Cowen should be seen to stand up and publicly state that we cannot afford to pay him this money regardless of Nearys contract.
    Was Cowen not the one who said everything was for renegotation , let Neary sue the state if he feels hard done by he apparantly still has his €140,000 a year pension. Cowen would getr more support from the public if he was seen to stand up take take some decisive action.


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    #7
    yop
    Moderators, Home & Garden Moderators, Regional Midwest Moderators, Regional West Moderators Posts: 16,722 Mod ✭✭✭✭yop


    Liam Byrne wrote: »
    Nothing "wrong", maybe, but he didn't do his job - what he was paid to do!

    So he should be fired, with no payoff and a miniscule pension at best.

    That is the crux of it, he was appointed to do a job of oversee the financial institutes. Did he do this job??

    I dont think he did his job. So why does he get a pay off?
    Why does his pension need to be so high?

    This place is a fking joke. It gets worse and worse by the day.


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    #8
    Liam Byrne
    Closed Accounts Posts: 18,163 ✭✭✭✭Liam Byrne


    jmayo wrote: »
    Perhaps you even get another public salary along with your fat pension if you were a good boy and didn't screw up.

    "Fixed" that there for you, jmayo......that last bit doesn't even come into it! :mad:


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    #9
    marcsignal
    Registered Users Posts: 4,072 ✭✭✭marcsignal


    yop wrote: »
    This place is a fking joke. It gets worse and worse by the day.

    +1

    honesty is the road to poverty, it would seem :mad:


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    #10
    gurramok
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,992 ✭✭✭✭gurramok


    As well as having a 'crackdown' on excessive bank boss bonuses, there should be a clampdown on regulator bonuses as well, not just the financial one but the likes of Comreg and electricity one comes to mind.

    Sounds like an old boys club, you scratch my back and i'll scratch yours.


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    #11
    jimmmy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,539 ✭✭✭jimmmy


    yop wrote: »
    This place is a fking joke. It gets worse and worse by the day.

    I agree. Its very disheartening for the ordinary person who has worked hard, maybe 60 hours a week, and taken calculated risks, and is now left with damn all income, no pension....
    Its not fair.


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    #12
    PeakOutput
    Registered Users Posts: 7,639 ✭✭✭PeakOutput


    yop wrote: »
    That is the crux of it, he was appointed to do a job of oversee the financial institutes. Did he do this job??

    I dont think he did his job. .

    and your qualified to judge that how exactly?

    he messed up in a fairly big way but the amount of attention he is getting is a joke. he did his job well for years in the banks and then he was offered this job he would not of taken a contract that was not beneficial to him (no1 would) the governement gave him the contract they should honor it

    as i said in another thread the banks were one(admittedly) big part of his job insurance companies were the other and he has done a very good job regulating the insurance industry so should he be given no recognition for this? maybe if it was judged that 50% of his job was banks and 50% was insurance he did crap with banks good with insurance so he should gethalf his payoff? would you be happy then?

    600K is nothing in the grand scheme of things. he did not help any of the under hand ealings that were going on happen he was not directly involved himself. as has been saidnumerous timeswhat he i getting stick for(these loans) are not illegal so even if he knew about them would he be able to do anything about it? they just happened to come to light because of the state the banks were in and he is now a convenient scapegoat for everyone to vent their frustration on imo


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    #13
    gurramok
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,992 ✭✭✭✭gurramok


    PeakOutput, a devastating housing bubble which has crippled the banking system occurred under his watch and he did nothing since the day he was appointed to prevent that.

    Thats the source of justified anger.


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    #14
    PeakOutput
    Registered Users Posts: 7,639 ✭✭✭PeakOutput


    gurramok wrote: »
    PeakOutput, a devastating housing bubble which has crippled the banking system occurred under his watch and he did nothing since the day he was appointed to prevent that.

    Thats the source of justified anger.

    banking systems world wide are crippled did he cripple those too?

    people should be angry yes but focusing on this one person is a joke he is symptom not the cause


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    #15
    yop
    Moderators, Home & Garden Moderators, Regional Midwest Moderators, Regional West Moderators Posts: 16,722 Mod ✭✭✭✭yop


    PeakOutput wrote: »
    banking systems world wide are crippled did he cripple those too?

    people should be angry yes but focusing on this one person is a joke he is symptom not the cause

    Focusing on the man who was in the position to monitor the institutes who have ruined our Country.

    As for been qualified, my dog can see that this man did not do his job,

    Have a look at their site:
    http://www.financialregulator.ie/frame_main.asp?pg=%2Fabout%5Fus%2Fau%5Fwelc%2Easp&nv=%2Fabout%5Fus%2Fau%5Fnav%2Easp

    "The Financial Regulator is responsible for the regulation of all financial services firms in Ireland. It also has an important role in the protection of the consumers of those firms."

    By allowing banks to lend stupid money to builders and not seeing the carry on in Anglo Irish then he has failed in his role.
    The lack of protection by the regulator now means us, the consumers, are now going to be laden with his lackings.

    I am not going to justify it to be honest, look at any job, its spec'd out and if you dont do it you get sacked or get a serious slap on the hands.

    You are not allowed to resign keep an immoral pension and get an immoral pay off.


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    #16
    markpb
    Registered Users Posts: 9,255 ✭✭✭markpb


    PeakOutput wrote: »
    people should be angry yes but focusing on this one person is a joke he is symptom not the cause

    No-one is saying he is single handedly responsible but he is _responsible_. His job was to watch the banks to make sure they behaved. They didn't therefore he didn't do his job (in this instance). If he wasn't willing to accept responsibility, he shouldn't have taken the job. You can't have it both ways, people at the top in Ireland think you can.


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    #17
    highgiant1985
    Registered Users Posts: 1,776 ✭✭✭highgiant1985


    gurramok wrote: »
    PeakOutput, a devastating housing bubble which has crippled the banking system occurred under his watch and he did nothing since the day he was appointed to prevent that.

    Thats the source of justified anger.

    but what could he have done?


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    #18
    gurramok
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,992 ✭✭✭✭gurramok


    I do not think you understand. the Irish housing bubble is a domestic issue which has crippled our banks, its been(and has been) exacerbated by the international financial crisis.

    From memory Patrick Neary was appointed in 2003. It was about from that date onwards that the worst practices of reckless lending to developers/homebuyers occurred in the Irish banking system and nothing was done.

    The latest Anglo Irish saga of hiding director loans forced the issue and the man resigned in disgrace.


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    #19
    gurramok
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,992 ✭✭✭✭gurramok


    highgiant1985 wrote: »
    but what could he have done?

    Regulate bad lending practices?

    As in my post above, nothing was done to stop the banks(all of them) over exposing themselves to property lending hence the mess we are in.


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    #20
    markpb
    Registered Users Posts: 9,255 ✭✭✭markpb


    highgiant1985 wrote: »
    but what could he have done?

    He could have put tighter controls over lending by the banks, stopped them giving out 8x or 10x for mortgages or stopped them including expected bonuses, payrises, etc in the salary calculations. This would have kept prices lower because people wouldn't be able to borrow larger amounts.

    Willie O'Dea said on the radio this morning that a light regulation approach was what we adopted and, with hindsight, that was wrong. It wasn't hindsight - banks are critical to our economy and having self regulation as the only regulation was negligent and naive.

    Documents suggest that his office knew about the loans to the chairman of Anglo several years before they became public knowledge. If his office had been run properly, those loans would have been disclosed earlier.

    Pat Neary in his position as regulator was weak and ineffective
    Pat Neary in his position as the head of the office of the IFSRA was ineffective.


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    #21
    jmayo
    Registered Users Posts: 13,125 ✭✭✭✭jmayo


    I always laugh now when I see TV ads or hear radio ads for some financial package or other, when at the end they state "they are regulated by the IFSRA".

    They might as well just say we are regulated by Mickey Mouse while Donald Duck is on holdiays. It would make as much sense.

    Pure joke of an entity at this stage.
    Were most of their staff on secondment from Anglo by any chance ?


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    #22
    nesf
    Registered Users Posts: 27,645 ✭✭✭✭nesf


    gurramok wrote: »
    I do not think you understand. the Irish housing bubble is a domestic issue which has crippled our banks, its been(and has been) exacerbated by the international financial crisis.

    It's debatable whether AIB and BoI could have not needed Government intervention if not for the international crisis in the money markets.


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    #23
    Darsad
    Registered Users Posts: 679 ✭✭✭Darsad


    Dan Boyle Berties boy sorry senator & unelected member of government thinks its a disgrace too !


    http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/?c=ireland&jp=mhsnidojqley


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    #24
    Nodin
    Closed Accounts Posts: 46,938 ✭✭✭✭Nodin


    Johanathonanon wrote:
    Just listening to Pat Kenny there. Has Shane Ross on with him at the moment.
    Turns out that the Financial Regulator Pat Neary got 200K payoff to step down, and additional 600K golden handshake, with a pension of 140K every year for the rest of his life. Is there no end to this lunacy, does the government realise that ordinary people have to work for years to put this money into the state ????

    What kind of unsustainable socialist-communist-manifesto talk is that, Johnathan? He's quality people. They don't suffer consequences.
    PeakOutput wrote:
    600K is nothing in the grand scheme of things.

    Thats true. However, to us ordinary folk, who can get fecked out for not doing our job, and would not be getting paid off for the privelege, its an awful lot. Its an even larger amount, considering the events unfolding as mentioned in this thread
    http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055467603

    I don't think he's to blame for everything, and indeed there'll have to be an examination of the remit of the office, to make sure that it could have prevented some of the practices that went on. But paying that amount out in the face of abject failure is just taking the piss.


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    #25
    Sand
    Registered Users Posts: 12,499 ✭✭✭✭Sand


    but what could he have done?

    He could have done the job he was paid to do. He didnt. And yet, hes not held accountable. When there is such outrages about bonuses in the private sector, heres a man who should have been *sacked*.

    But that doesnt matter. When you get to those jobs its pure cronyism and jobs for the boys, all at the publics expense.

    The scary thing is there has been no change in outlook - Anglo Irish and Irish Permament have colluded to decieve the government, the market and the shareholders of Anglo Irish by "fixing" the books of Anglo Irish - bulking up the balance sheet for a few days to make things look better than they were in actuality.

    And this is not a problem apparently. This is how terrible the financial regulator is. And this message is communicated to the international market and terrifies them - how can they trust the books and figures of any major Irish financial institution when Irish banks are colluding in wilful deceit of shareholders and the financial regulator doesnt do anything about it? This is killing Ireland and Irish business. Killing it because no one is going to pump money into a business when theyre effectively being lied to as regards the true position. The financial regulator and the government ought to be crucifying the people responsible to communicate to everyone that this isnt acceptable in Ireland, that it isnt business as usual in Ireland. Fianna Fails typical cronyism is the worst possible response.

    So yeah, the financial regulator should shamed and its an absolute disgrace that he was allowed to retire, a disgrace hes getting this golden parachute whilst others are getting the sack or taking pay cuts and it will be a disgrace if Fianna Fail - who have done absolutely nothing to demonstrate they actually grasp whats going on - are ever elected into power in Ireland again.


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    #26
    J.S. Pill
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,149 ✭✭✭J.S. Pill


    Headline on Independent today: Bank watchdog gets €630k secret payoff.

    See here

    My question is what exactly made this payment secret?

    This appears to be their reasoning
    wrote:
    "in his resignation statement, Mr Neary made no mention of the fact he would be paid for the outstanding time remaining on his contract."

    The payment may have been morally unjust but to suggest it was underhanded on the front page of a national newspaper is stretching it a bit.


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    #27
    nesf
    Registered Users Posts: 27,645 ✭✭✭✭nesf


    J.S. Pill wrote: »
    The payment may have been morally unjust but to suggest it was underhanded on the front page of a national newspaper is stretching it a bit.

    Pfft but the full truth never sells newspapers.. :p


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    #28
    JonathanAnon
    Closed Accounts Posts: 23,718 ✭✭✭✭JonathanAnon


    I've read through the comments, and I'm not naive in my original question. I just find it very frustrating that in such hard times people are being rewarded for poor performance and there have been a few very high profile cases of this recently.

    I feel more like jumping off a bridge than working another day to put money back into the state to waste on Pat Neary's payoff and pension, Rody Molloy's payoff and pension, paying for Beverly Flynn's court costs from her failed case against RTE (they should have bankrupted her), paying for Bertie appointed senators like Eoghan Harris, Sean Fitzpatrick's shenanigans... I will leave this list open... Man, I'm depressed, can I claim back the VAT on Zoloft?


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    #29
    Nodin
    Closed Accounts Posts: 46,938 ✭✭✭✭Nodin


    JonathanAnon wrote: »
    I've read through the comments, and I'm not naive in my original question. I just find it very frustrating that in such hard times people are being rewarded for poor performance and there have been a few very high profile cases of this recently.

    A world wide phenomena. Seemingly the first thing you do when you get to the top level is to negotiate a contract that 100% guarantees a soft landing.
    JonathanAnon wrote: »
    I feel more like jumping off a bridge than working another day to put money back into the state to waste on Pat Neary's payoff and pension, Rody Molloy's payoff and pension, paying for Beverly Flynn's court costs from her failed case against RTE (they should have bankrupted her), paying for Bertie appointed senators like Eoghan Harris, Sean Fitzpatrick's shenanigans... I will leave this list open... Man, I'm depressed, can I claim back the VAT on Zoloft?

    Don't jump off a bridge unless you're sure to land on one of the above.


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    #30
    DARKIZE
    Closed Accounts Posts: 79 ✭✭DARKIZE


    yop wrote: »
    That is the crux of it, he was appointed to do a job of oversee the financial institutes. Did he do this job??

    I dont think he did his job. So why does he get a pay off?
    Why does his pension need to be so high?

    This place is a fking joke. It gets worse and worse by the day.


    Neary actually got exactly what he was entitled to as a public-service employee after 40 year's service; lump-sum based on his final salary (75% I believe), pension based on final salary and linked to future increases in his grade, and a "sweetner" of 8 months salary as compensation for chucking in 2 year's early (dunno why he got that bit though). Pay & pensions are not linked to performance in the PS, so his entitlement is in no way compromised by his incompetence.

    Be interested to see if the PS unions come out now and suggest that pensions should be capped, or pay linked to performance. Is there a blue moon tonight ???


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    #31
    Liam Byrne
    Closed Accounts Posts: 18,163 ✭✭✭✭Liam Byrne


    highgiant1985 wrote: »
    but what could he have done?

    Whatever he was being paid a fortune to do. Presumably he's the expert, if he's on that kind of money ?


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