Ian Guider: AIB set to broach Goodbody bonuses

It will be a big ask of a government battling Covid-19 and its economic fallout to wave through generous financial packages for a few hundred employees

It appears that AIB is prepared to raise the issue of bonuses with the government once again in its efforts to acquire Goodbody Stockbrokers.

In a podcast in late 2019, Colin Hunt, the AIB chief executive, lamented the risks the government’s decade-long ban on paying bonuses was having on keeping and recruiting staff. “By any measure I am well paid,” he said. “My concern about the restrictions in place is a far, far broader concern. My concern about the restrictions relates more to our inability to pay variable pay to staff members.

“We’re competing for the same pool of ...