The Bank of Ireland is to pay €2 million to the exchequer for providing “misleading” information on bonuses paid to staff.

An investigation ordered by the Department of Finance shows the bank paid staff bonuses totalling nearly €66.4 million from September 2008 to the end of last year.

The bank had previously implied that no bonuses had been paid to senior management since the bank guarantee scheme was introduced in September 2008. This information was provided to the Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan, who in turn used it as a response to a Dáil question on bank bonuses.

The investigation also shows that members of Bank of Ireland’s senior executive team were paid previously agreed bonuses amounting to €4.3m in 2009 and 2010.

Ah yes, it must be time to move beyond banker-bashing…..and much, much bigger fines