Colm Doherty

Although as former colleagues at ICC Bank, we once knew each other, albeit very slightly, I "carry no torch for" Colm Doherty. Still, I am impelled by recent unfair comment to come at least partially to his defence. It is only a partial defence, if only because my knowledge of most relevant facts is confined to what has been published in the media.

He has been in the news because AIB Group have disclosed that he received €3m (which included pension contributions) on termination of his contract as group managing director. There are those who say that this was a perverse "reward" for having lost the bank billions. Even the Minister for Justice has seemed to give credence to this version of the position.

The truth of the matter is that Mr Doherty worked for AIB for about 20 years, almost all of that in a part of the bank that was always, and still is, profitable.("How come the bank is insolvent,then ?" you may ask. It was the lending, remember ? Colm Doherty was not a lender at AIB.). He took a pay cut to become Group MD. The payments made to him are not merely for his last year as an employee, in which a lot of bad things - done by others in previous years - came to light.

Of course, he was also a main board director for a number of years, and that does mean that he bears some share of the responsibility for the lending disaster, but there is no evidence of which I am aware that he committed any crime for which forfeiture of his pension entitlements would be merited.

Please note that I am neither criticising nor defending either the choice of Mr Doherty to be Group Managing Director, the level of his remuneration in that position or that in his previous one.