Former Finance Minister and former IBRC Chairman Alan Dukes says in order for Irish banks to recover bankers pay must be attractive enough to keep those with the necessary skills in the required roles.

Yesterday the annual report for Bank of Ireland was published and it showed that chief executive Richie Boucher was paid €910,000 last year. It revealed that Mr. Boucher waived €67,000 from his annual salary, cutting his overall pay to €843,000.

He has handed back part of his salary for the last 3 years and the report says he will also waive some of his salary this year.

According to the annual report Mr. Boucher was paid a basic salary of €690,000, pension contributions of €186,000 and other perks including a car allowance of €34,000.

The board of directors at the bank shared €2.5 million in pay, pensions and fees in 2012, the report shows.

The two public interest directors on the board - former Fianna Fáil Agriculture Minister Joe Walsh and former civil servant Tom Considine - received fees of €90,000 and €98,000.

Changes from Department of Finance

The scale of the pay comes a week after a report by consultants Mercer for the Department of Finance said top bank bosses were paid below their international counterparts. However the Finance Minister Michael Noonan has ordered Bank of Ireland, AIB and Permanent TSB to cut up to 10% from their staff costs to reflect the fact that they are loss-making.

Bank of Ireland earlier this month reported a loss for 2012 of about €1.5 billion.

Alan Dukes says there must be a measured approach to bankers pay here but as IBRC chairman he has found that as staff are trained-up they often leave for higher paying positions elsewhere.

He told Breakfast here on Newstalk that bankers pay must be considered in the real-world of the banking market.