I NEVER thought I would say a good word about Richie Boucher. Well, I won’t. But the Bank of Ireland chief must be saluted as a genius, the sort of guy you would like on your side when you were eyeballing a spineless cabinet minister.

Richie’s pay is capped at €500,000 a year. The poor sinner has been condemned to live on 10 grand a week.

Richie sometimes makes bystanders weep when he waffles on about his big cut in salary, although he has never told us about all the jobs he must have turned down to stay at home and save the bank he helped to ruin.