The Director General of the Workplace Relations Commission, Kieran Mulvey has made a strongly-worded attack on the Central Bank’s policy of paying retention payments to try to retain key staff, which first aroused controversy last week.

The revelation that payments were first made four years ago has triggered a vote of no confidence in management by the bank’s largest trade union, Unite on Philip Lane's first day, though it’s thought to be unlikely that there will be any further escalation in industrial relations action.

Speaking to RTE, Mulvey said the Bank’s policy lacked transparency and its arguments could be made to a greater extent in relation to front line services in health, education and other sectors and he queried whether those essential skills were less important than people with financial and regulatory skills in the Central Bank.

He added that he would be interested to see the Central Bank's legal advice on whether these payments broke FEMPI legislation governing public sector pay.

The Central Bank confirmed that it first began such payments in 2011 and that it has paid a total of €234,000 to date.

The policy is currently in place for 29 staff in two divisions of the bank.

It has argued that Unite has disregarded agreed  internal procedures created to facilitate smooth and accurate channels of communication between the bank and the union. It has called on the union to return to agreed procedures.