Staff at State-owned Anglo Irish Bank are shortly to receive pay increases, it was revealed tonight.
According to a report on RTÉ's Prime Time broadcast this evening, 40 out 0f 800 members of staff in Ireland are to receive increases at a time when the bank is about to announce the biggest ever corporate loss in Irish history.
In addition, 20 out of 370 members of staff in Britain and 10 out of 80 US-based employees will also receive pay rises.
Anglo Irish Bank refused to confirm the sizes of the increases, describing them as "modest." However, Prime Time alleged that some staff may receive significant rises.
The bank said the increases were awarded in cases where roles and responsibilities had changed since the completion of its voluntary redundancies and in situations where qualifications of relevance to individual's jobs had recently been completed.
Anglo is expected to report losses of close to €12 billion next week for the 15 months to the end of 2009, as it writes off about €14 billion on loans, including losses on loans of €36 billion moving to the National Asset Management Agency.
As a result, the bank will require a further bailout from the Government, possibly as much as €6 billion, to replenish capital reserves.
The Government injected a total of €4 billion into Anglo in three tranches last year – €3 billion in June, €828 million in August and €172 million in September.
Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan said the Government's decision to bring Anglo Irish Bank into State ownership in January 2009 was taken to safeguard the economic future of the country and the continued viability of its financial institutions.
