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Maire Geoghegan-Quinn, Pension: €107,000+
Charlie McCreevy, Pension: €125,000+
December 6, 2009
VOL 26 NO 49
EU highfliers refuse to give up Irish pensions
Combined cost of payments to former TDs and ministers almost €12.8m last year
John Bruton, Pension: €150,000+
IRELAND'S three high-profile European Union leaders, who receive ministerial pensions in excess of €100,000 on top of their six-figure salaries, this weekend refused to countenance giving up their entitlements despite the grave economic picture.
The government's nominee to become Ireland's next European commissioner, Maire Geoghegan- Quinn, received a combined state pension of well over €100,000 last year, despite already receiving an estimated €180,000-a-year salary as a member of the European Court of Auditors.
However, she has refused to say whether she would be willing to forego some or all of this payment when, as expected, she takes up her new role. This carries a basic annual salary of €238,000 plus significant relocation and other expense payments.
Outgoing EU commissioner Charlie McCreevy received a combined TD and ministerial pension of more than €125,000 from the state last year. This was in addition to his €238,000-plus annual salary for his EU role, which is also pensionable. He refused to comment when contacted by the Sunday Tribune.
Former taoiseach John Bruton was paid a total pension of more than €150,000 last year, in addition to his other earnings from his recently completed 'day job' as the EU's ambassador to the US.
Figures compiled by the Sunday Tribune, based on separate Department of Finance and Oireachtas Commission figures for TD and ministerial pension payments last year, also reveal that former Fine Gael leader Alan Dukes was paid a total pension of €98,431 in 2008.
RTé reported on Friday that Dukes, who provides public-affairs consultancy services to leading media firm Wilson Hartnell PR, has received fees of €99,360 to date in his role as one of the state's two public-interest directors at Anglo Irish Bank.
Bruton and Dukes did not respond when asked by this newspaper if they would be willing to forego some or all of their pension payments in light of the current economic difficulties facing the state. The combined cost of providing separate TD and ministerial pensions to former Oireachtas members was almost €12.8m last year.
Geoghegan-Quinn was paid an ex-TD's pension of €44,381 in 2008 plus an additional €62,945 ministerial pension for 2008, bringing a combined total of more than €107,000, the figures show.
But a spokesman for the former justice minister, who left national politics in 1997, said she is focused on preparing for the forthcoming EU parliament hearing in relation to her nomination.
"She is only a nominated commissioner not a ratified commissioner. If she is successful at this EU parliament hearing, she will deal with these queries at that time," he said.
The failure of the former politicians to say whether they would be willing to forego some or all of their state pensions contrasts sharply with the approach of others, such as Irish Human Rights Commission president and former Fine Gael TD Maurice Manning.
Earlier this year, he told the Sunday Tribune that he would be foregoing slightly more than his €45,000-a-year basic ex-TD's pension in light of the current downturn, saying it was the "right thing to do".
A number of well-known MEPs, including Proinsias de Rossa and Gay Mitchell, have also agreed to forego their ministerial and TD pension entitlements.
A spokesman for the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission confirmed that pension payments to ex-TDs are separate to ministerial pensions. They are also provided to recipients irrespective of other employment they might have entered into.
November 22, 2009
Comments
#3 jack meskill commented, on November 22, 2009 at 8:51 p.m.:
There you have it.
Politicians should be told what to do with their requests for votes for re-election, for the next ninety years of NAMA induced hardship for Irish children and their children's children who will still be paying off the NAMA fit-up for builders, bankers and the politicians that they pay off all the time.
Irish voters, wise up ! With-hold votes from any present member of Dail Eireann or your local council, european constituency or other elected rip-off trough !
#4 ciaran rafter commented, on November 22, 2009 at 10:23 p.m.:
At least the Irish Public are beginning to realise that they are being spun some lies. FF have blown the economy. The only people benefiting at present are friends of FF.
#5 Maire Mhor commented, on November 22, 2009 at 11:10 p.m.:
Ah well,
Maire has learnt well from her late father Johnny who collected the bus fares from sleepy passengers on the Galway to Clifden bus;she just collects much more from the sleepy Irish while the dole queues stretch longer.It is all about FF patronage and clientelism and looking after your own:stuff the country and line your pockets
#6 anne nolan commented, on November 23, 2009 at 1:21 a.m.:
Totally immoral where is conscience ? what about the elderly are they losing their Christmas bonus ?
#7 Roger Rafferty commented, on November 23, 2009 at 2:29 a.m.:
What have all these people got in common? They have all been elected by the Irish people, who deserve everything that's coming until they decide to wake up as Jack Meskill says. When the Brits ran Ireland for their own benefit, we fought them on patriotic grounds. The exploitation of generations of Irish people to come, via exorbitant mortgages from an artificially-inflated property boom to benefit the rich, and now NAMA and the taxes to pay for it, represent financial oppression which will affect people's lives as much as an invading army. That the army is made up of Irish people in politics and business whose uniform is a suit, means it's just a different but no better kind of oppression. But this oppressor - just as those who came before from Britain - are also of a different place, with different rules and different privileges. Wake up to what's happening, Irish people. You will soon when you start getting bled dry, from the budget and NAMA you could have derailed by voting No against Lisbon, toppling this shower out of sight.
#8 Richaed commented, on November 23, 2009 at 2:21 p.m.:
You priviligrd people think of all the self-employed,small traders, those in negativity paying more than they can afford just to survive.Thers people pay the taxes to keep you living a surreal lifestyle.You appear to be unwilling to remove this burden from the honest, hardworking people of our bankrupt state. I rememer talking to McCreevy about the scandal of the VAT on SKY subsriptions being paid to the British Exchequer. He had no explanation we owe too much to these big players for whatever has been tradea or surrended on our behalf. I remember talking to Alan Dukes about nthe stupidity of the 35% VAT rate in the 1980s. When you are farn removed from the daily struggle to survive you seek shelter in the largess provided by the small people.They can do without while you ride the gravy train.
#9 jim commented, on November 23, 2009 at 3:06 p.m.:
the word entitlements is the key to what is wrong with irish society!!! it happens to be put up as a defence for every time this lot and their cronies have questions to answer!
#10 Paul McDonald commented, on November 23, 2009 at 4:11 p.m.:
While there are one or two basket-case countries I can choose to compare with Ireland, the example I will use is Norway, the richest nation in Europe and the richest on earth in terms of per capita income.
Norway has wealth-generating resources in oil and gas and 4.5 million citizens. It is the nearest in population size to Ireland. So what might politicians expect if they were public representatives in Norway?
Norwegian MPs are paid an annual salary of €79,000 (1.5 times average earnings in Norway), compared with a TD's salary of €122,000 (over 3 times average earnings in the Irish Republic which is NOT SUSTAINABLE). The average TD also claims up to €70,000 in expenses. This is NOT SUSTAINABLE.
I do not have details of expenses for Norwegian MPs, but those who are from constituencies more than 40 km from the Storting receive free accommodation assistance within Oslo. The Storting owns 140 flats for this purpose.
Norwegian government ministers earn about €100,000 per annum (less than 50% of their Irish equivalents who earn a NON-SUSTAINABLE €225,000 per annum).
The Prime Minister and the President of the Storting earn approximately €110,000, only about 40% of the salary of the Taoiseach, €257,000, a sum which was never justifiable and certainly NOT SUSTAINABLE in the present emergency.
The Prime Minister of Norway drives himself to work in his own car. He is only permitted to take a State car, from a pool, on State business. After State business is concluded, he must return the car to the Government pool, and make his own way home. In Ireland every minister is provided with a high-spec motor vehicle and chauffeur at an estimated cost of €140,000 per annum, NOT SUSTAINABLE. I also understand that each Irish minister receives constituency office expenses of around €180,000 per annum, NOT SUSTAINABLE.
Choosing Norway for a comparative study was not unreasonable, and my findings suggest that an immediate 60 to 70% cut in TD's salaries would be in order just to bring them into line with Europe’s richest nation.
In future years, other factors will need to be taken into account when determining cost-cutting measures for Ireland’s political elite.
· Our small population with political over-representation
· The fact that the average TD is claiming up to €70,000 per annum in tax-free expenses – up to 2 times pre-tax average earnings.
· TD’s salaries and benefits in kind are often supplementary to other major sources of income
· Irish “populist” politics fanned the flames of UNSUSTAINABLE GROWTH and brought about the greatest economic collapse in the Anglo-American world.
The Taoiseach earns 8 times Irish average earnings and has a full-time chauffeur. His counterpart in Norway is earning just over 2 times Norwegian average earnings and must use a car-pooling arrangement when he needs to be chauffeured.
The Irish political gravy train simply has to end!
#11 jack meskill commented, on November 24, 2009 at 8:57 a.m.:
We really are slaves in our hearts and souls. We were slaves to the british for hundreds of years and were always among their most servile and cruel footsoldiers in their armies of occupation in India and countless other colonial abuses.
Now we have made our political caste, with their business partners, the banking and financial services castes, into our new masters and slavers.
But will any of this analysis stop any of us from continuing to use our votes to continue to sheepishly support FF/FG/SF/Lab/whatever else they call themselves ?
Answer? NO!
We lack the moral fibre to make the decision to use our vote for real change. We prefer the corrupt musical chairs that keeps them all still on our backs to making the simple brave decision to only vote for new virgin candidates, without criminal records, for every electable position, al local, national and EU levels.
Have you the courage and the morals to decide to do this for a lifetime? Or are you just a happy prostitute, just like the rest of the sheep?
I only ask..........
#12 brian commented, on November 24, 2009 at 10:33 a.m.:
Roger, its not so easy to wake up people who are not even aware they are sleeping..they dont seem to want to know anything other than the nightmares they live in..
#13 Martin Brennan commented, on November 24, 2009 at 11:15 a.m.:
All those TD`s who are getting pensions and are not of retirement age should have their "pensions" stopped, Dick Spring and others take note, before the worm turns. Also those who have reached retirement age should be means tested to see if they need the pension. Also all the widows/widowers of dead TD`s should not be getting any payouts from the state as they have contributed nothing. Guys there is a revolution coming down the road and we will not be happy "eating cake", take heed.
#14 John Mol commented, on November 25, 2009 at 12:46 a.m.:
We didn't rock the boat ,so we're all in the same boat.
The politicians - many are on the gravy train with expenses and pensions, so you're all corrupt.
The teachers - keep quiet while many ex-teacher politicians (of all parties) still line their pockets with multiple pensions, so you're all guilty by association.
Other "hard working" people - pay your union bosses exorbitant salaries which they top off with a few directorships, so you're all accomplices.
We should stop the whinging and self-pity and start pointing fingers at "our own" and stop associating with the real "wasters".
#16 Paddy McGinty commented, on November 25, 2009 at 9:16 p.m.:
At a time when Ireland faces Economic Meltdown- We need real leadership and alas We don't have it.
Whilst telling all that major cuts and taxation hikes will be on the menu for years to come- Why can't the Government lead by example?
Someone needs to step up to the plate and end this madness.
The reality is that all will have to take cuts and pay more taxes.
The Celtic Tiger is dead and it's unable to sustain these ludricous levels of pay/ pensions and expenses for the Political Elite...
#17 Francis Lloyd commented, on November 28, 2009 at 10:38 p.m.:
being Irish has no meaning anymore. it's the last thing one could feel the least shred of pride in. I remember being at home when the state's man came to my father after he applied to have money to pay for the tablets he needed to stay alive to keep his blood fluid. he'd worked for forty five years, self- employed, and kept his family through bad times. They refused him the money he needed; i don't know the details but he was always very poor and the tablets were expensive. When I left school I passed a civil service competition for a job in the dept of p&t but was refused the job because the medical discovered I had a visual handicap which has never prevented me from doing anything. when i worked in England for years and brought my car home they wanted £11,000 pounds VAT and duty. but it was 14 years old and no vat applied to 2nd hand goods. I refused to pay and scrapped the car and went back to england shortly afterwards. a few years later I came back to my 'homeland' with another car costing £700 and they wanted £8,000 and I appealed and wrote to the min for finance but he wrote and said it would be £4k VAT and £4duty and I refused and the car was seized and myself assaulted in the kitchen of my family home. I suffered with slight paranoia thinking I was the victim of a criminal gang but no so, the state.
When i was unemployed there for a while in the 70s I was paid £6 a week and had to pay £4 a week rent and 24p bus fares and had to go without food two days a week and go without a special diet for stomach ulcers.
Later I saved up and bought shares in WW and AIB and never took any dividends, instead accumulated share for a pension. They took c 22% out of my dividends year on year for twenty years but the WW shares are worthless, not worth the paper... and the AIB shares almost worthless and no dividends.
To read about these vast fortunes of 'representatives' make me want to...well...just sit and wait for nothing. no words can describe the magnitude of the sense of injustice some people feel.
#18 sean d carroll commented, on November 29, 2009 at 11:42 a.m.:
Typical !! Talk about leading by example ??!!
#19 Frank commented, on November 29, 2009 at 12:32 p.m.:
Francis, what a terribly sad story you paint. You have my sympathies as a part-time worker who will never earn a fraction of what these fatcat politicians are enjoying thanks to our collective stupidity in allowing such a state of affairs to develop. Sadly, I think the IMF is the only solution. Dail Eireann needs to be temporarily disestablished and replaced by hardnosed business types with a social conscience who will ruthlessly ensure that those most in need will be treated fairly. The problem, of course, is how to avoid the issue of power corrupting but this will be achieved by sharply reducing the vast allowance mechanisms and by reducing the basic salaries by a third for TDS and by half for government ministers. Politics should be made as unattractive as possible in financial terms as only this will ensure that a policy of disinterested service in the national interest can be created. More money will be saved by imposing substantial cuts on anyone earning over 150,00 a year.
#20 Fred Johnston commented, on November 29, 2009 at 1:56 p.m.:
Again we are faced with the business of 'doing the right thing,' and that concept simply does not exist amongst Irish politicians. It is (sadly) foolish for ordinary Irish people to expect their representatives NOT to fleece the public coffers; in many cases they do so in order to escape the historical memory of rural backgrounds, small hopeless parishes and the 'stigma' of not being thought sophisticated; lacking sophistication, they become cute. They have no thought for the people they represent - why should they have? A man gets a bargain at a horse-fair, he takes it.
#21 Brian Phelan commented, on November 29, 2009 at 3:04 p.m.:
References to slavery are quite apposite. When the 'masters' left the 'big house' in 1922, the Irish economy was at its peak so the slaves-in-chief set about plundering it. Some pranced (and still prance) around the lawns in the master's silk waistcoat whilst others melted down the silver and burnt the furniture. 90 years on their political inheritors are still doing it because they don't know any better. Moreover, they're encouraged in their gombeenism by an electorate of staggering immaturity who think the O'Donoghues, the Haugheys and the Aherns are mighty men altogether. The British were right to think in 1922 that we wouldn't be capable of governing ourselves.
#22 colum glendon commented, on November 29, 2009 at 4:50 p.m.:
I thought pensions were for people when they retire at 60 or 65. For nearly everybody else it is. Why can´t a worker who changes job get a pension on leaving his old job no matter what their age ? A politician here in Catalunya told me it´s like that because of the job insecurity.....Looking from afar I see the soldiers of destiny.Their struggle-against their own corruption.Their destiny- forced resignation(always making sure they have their nice fat state pensions that is)
#23 tony commented, on November 29, 2009 at 5:50 p.m.:
Francis Lloyd I have to acknowledge your story is enough to cause outrage. There are a small number of powerful people who gloated over and taunted the powerless when they were at the height of their power. They then destroyed the economy. They have to be held to account. But the problem is that the press and RTE are still in their pockets.
#24 Francis Lloyd commented, on November 30, 2009 at 2:09 p.m.:
@tony thanks. I agree that the media is crucial to standards in politics and social justice. pity about rte.
@ Frank. thanks for your expressions of sympathy. I feel very sad for people like my father, devout catholics all their lives and believing that the authority of the state came from god as my da did. He paid taxes all his life as I remember the tension in the home when tax returns time came round and he had to ask my mother to help as he had no education. When his friends told him to apply for the costs of the tablets and he did I was sitting in the room muttering epithets under my breath as I knew he wouldn't get the cost of the tablets; he didn't and my mother had to go out to work to pay for them, leaving the house at 7am and not getting back home til 7pm. He would never complain about anything.
I've often written to RTE myself about a state that deprives its citizens of their right to take up employment gained through a civil service competition, the right to work, on account of a minor visual handicap, and never had any reply or acknowledgement, but since the net came along and I used to listen in occasionally I hear them kicking up a storm over soccer fans being overcharged by the cheap flight airlines and tour operators having to beg for mercy from them over tickets to soccer matches. Something wrong with priorities.
But even when I found that my father's occupation was wrong on my birth certificate and I tried to have it remedied they put me through hell of bureacratic nonsense and I had to give up. It was such a big part of his life that he was an upholsterer and not a 'labourer' that I wanted it changed to somehow preserve the respect of his memory and his lifelong trade and craft, but had I persisted they would have driven me mad. It's not only the physcial life they contemn but the integrity of the family character.
Thanks for your sympathies and let's hope people can preserve social and family values even when the state is in bed with the dollar, the GB pound sterling and the sacred Euro.
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Is it any wonder the country is in the state its in with these hypocritical "patriots" running things. We had "calamity" coughlan telling us not to go north for shopping and stay here instead and be patriotic.I suppose she wants to ensure there is plenty largess for all her cronies to waste.As i said before the imf cant come soon enough.