IMF tells the Irish government more bank jobs need to be shed.
IMFJust as bank workers thought the worst was over regarding job cuts the IMF has said that the redundancy figures already announced by the three main Irish banks will not be sufficient.
AIB, Bank of Ireland and Permanent TSB have agreed plans to shed 20 per cent of their respective workforces by the end of 2015 as well as shutting down a total of over 60 branches which equates to seven per cent of the three banks networks.
However the IMF has informed the Irish government that further re-structuring is necessary because it believes that additional cost savings are required for the banks to fix their cost base.
The fund, part of Ireland’s bailout troika, said that the cost base of Irish banks is double that of comparable sized institutions in the European Union.
It pointed out that costs at these banks have been moving upwards since 2010 due to what it termed as “extraordinary consultancy fees” and other outlays involved in their restructuring.
The Irish government is desperately trying to downsize the banks involved while at the same time avoid wholesale redundancies as this would be a political and economic minefield for them.
However the IMF is adamant that what is currently being proposed by the three banks is not enough due to the decline in their size.
It is expected that any attempt to force through further job cuts will be fiercely resisted by staff and unions alike.
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