SEANAD REPORT:PUBLIC INTEREST directors in the banks were on the gravy train, and there was fairly conclusive evidence they had "gone native", said Shane Ross (Ind ).

Alan Dukes had very surprisingly supported wage rises for top people in Anglo Irish Bank. “That is something which I don’t think any public interest director should have done unless they had actually gone native.”

Mr Ross said he thought the Government was beginning to regard the banks as quangos. They were appointing people who looked very similar to political nominees on other semi-State bodies. Appointees included former senior people from the Department of Finance, which had not covered itself with credit.

He said he did not share in the plaudits that had been heaped on Bank of Ireland chief executive Richie Boucher over his decision to forgo his pension top-up. This concession had been dragged out of him by the Government and public opinion.

“There is no way he had a sudden crisis of conscience, and said ‘I am going to save the nation and do this’.”

Paul Coghlan (FG) said it was to be hoped that public service directors were not just nodders and “yes” men who had been captured by some of the old boys on the boards of financial institutions.

Terry Leyden (FF) said it was inappropriate for a public interest director to become chairman of Anglo Irish Bank. If necessary, he would ask the Minister for Finance to request Mr Dukes not to accept this position.

Eoghan Harris (Ind) said the public interest directors had slept on duty. No one had stared them in the eye and impressed the importance of their role before their appointments.