Latest news with #JordanDargan
Irish Times
20-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Bank of Ireland's new chairman faces run-in with bank pensioners
The initiation of Bank of Ireland' s new chairman, Akshaya Bhargava, continues this week as he gets to meet a smattering of small shareholders at its annual general meeting (agm) on Thursday. Another group also plans to make their presence known: bank pensioners who feel they've been dealt a raw deal. At issue are pledges that Bank of Ireland made as far back as 15 years ago to review crisis-era cutbacks to entitlements on its defined benefit (DB) pension scheme. This scheme, where benefits are linked to a worker's final salary, was closed to new entrants in 2006. 'I've entrepreneurial spirit in my veins' – Apprentice star Jordan Dargan Listen | 44:45 For the past dozen years pension increases have been essentially capped at 3 per cent – or 4 per cent, minus a 1 per cent clawback – while newly retired individuals get no rise for the first three years. Irish inflation was running at 7.8 per cent and 6.3 per cent, respectively, in 2022 and 2023, though it has come back significantly since then. It was running at 2.2 per cent in April. READ MORE The Bank Staff Pension Fund (BSPF) was €1 billion in surplus at the end of last year, according to the group's latest annual report. Disgruntled former staff got little satisfaction when they challenged then chairman Patrick Kennedy on the ongoing caps at last year's agm. This year, they've upped the ante and plan to hold a protest – organised by the Financial Services Union (FSU) – outside the agm at the Intercontinental Hotel in Dublin 4. 'The bank made a commitment in 2010 and 2013 that when profitability stabilised and normality returned, there would be a review of the cutbacks made to the scheme. The profitability transformation has been more than achieved – bank profits now exceed pre-crash levels,' the FSU said in a note sent out last week to Bank of Ireland pensioner members. The bank, for its part, says the trustees of the fund have a responsibility to provide security and stability to all 17,000 members of the fund – not just the 6,000 drawing a pension. Since 2010, the bank has injected more than €1 billion of additional funding into the scheme, it said. 'Over the same period, many other Irish DB schemes have closed to future accrual or been wound up,' the bank added. 'The BSPF is one of a small number of DB pension schemes which has managed to remain open and continues to provide valuable benefits.'
Irish Times
14-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
‘I've entrepreneurial spirit in my veins' – Apprentice star Jordan Dargan
This week's episode of Inside Business starts with an interview with Irish entrepreneur Jordan Dargan. Fans of the popular BBC show The Apprentice, will have seen Jordan come within a whisker of reaching the final two who got to pitch to secure Lord Sugar's £250,000 investment. There was some consolation for the 22-year-old Dubliner with Lord Sugar giving him his business card before he left the boardroom and encouraging him to keep in touch. Jordan joined host Ciarán Hancock in studio to detail his experience on the Apprentice, how the business he pitched to Lord Sugar has developed since recording finished last year, and offers he has received here to pursue a career in media. READ MORE Earlier this week, US president Donald Trump pressed for drug companies to invest more in the United States and to lower their prices for medicines. So, what would that mean for the Irish pharma sector, which exports a huge amount of medicines to the US each year. Dominic Coyle of The Irish Times has covered the story and goes through Trump's proposals and the possible implications for Irish pharma. Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound.
