Everyone it Ireland, it seems, is feeling the pinch currently even those working for the traditionally well-paying Goldman Sachs. Still, with an average remuneration of over $202k (€140k), there are worse places to be.

Goldman Sachs Bank (Europe) Plc posted a pre-tax profit of $58m for 2010, which is a 34% decline on the $86.7m it made in 2009.

Similarly, pay per head fell from an average of $250k (€189k) in 2009 to $202k last year. This doesn’t look particularly favourable compared with overall average pay at the bank, which was $430.7k in 2010 for its 35,700 staff across the world.

Employees at Goldman Sachs International – its European business – received average compensation of $818.9k.

The $10.9m compensation pot in the Irish operation is unlikely to have been divided equally, however – just two of the bank’s 54 staff work in front office sales and trading roles, with the remaining 52 in support, finance, operations or technology positions.

The bank added six employees last year.

Director pay at the firm also shrank, to an average compensation of $123k last year, and interestingly the majority of the 11 board members are Irish.

Stephen Davies, who is responsible for finance at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, is British and Amol Naik, a managing director at the bank, is American.

Robert Keogh, responsible for hedge fund administration at Goldman; Dermot McDonough, international controller at the bank; Patrick Mulvihill, controller at the bank; James O’Dwyer, former chairman of Irish law firm Arthur Cox; Cornelius O’Sullivan; Richard O’Toole; Bryan Strahan, a partner at Arthur Cox; and David Went, former CEO of Irish Life & Permanent, all herald from the emerald isle.

Goldman Sachs Bank (Europe) Plc has been in Dublin since receiving its banking license in 2007 and, according to the bank, is involved in “deposit taking, secured funding, loan origination, hedge fund administration services, investment banking and private wealth management advisory services and related activities.”