Only 14 TDs opt for 10% pay cut

By Mary Regan, Political Reporter

Monday, April 06, 2009

FOR months they lectured us on how we all needed to share the pain of the economic crisis.

But just 14 TDs have opted to practice what they preach by responding to an invitation from the Minister for Finance to take a voluntary pay cut.

And two TDs who took up the offer of gifting 10% of their wages to the state have now asked the Department of Finance if they can get it back.

Following October’s budget, all senior ministers and secretary generals of government departments were forced to take a cut of 10%.

This was left as a voluntary option to all other TDs, senators and senior civil servants.

On the day before what is expected to be one of the hardest budgets in recent memory, the Irish Examiner can reveal that just 14 TDs have taken a cut in their salaries, which start at €100,191.

Just five out of the country’s 60 senators have opted for the pay cut from their salaries of €74,000.

Combined with the average travel expenses and allowances of €58,000 paid to senators, they get more than €130,000 a year for sitting just 92 days.

Just seven senior civil servants, including chairpersons of state boards who were invited to gift some pay to the state, took up the offer.

The Department of Finance would not reveal who has taken the pay cut, saying it was confidential.

However, Fine Gael said about 20 of its TDs have taken pay cuts, mostly in the region of 5% as proposed by their party leader, Enda Kenny, before last October’s budget.

The Green Party has already confirmed that none of its TDs, apart from their two ministers, have opted for a cut.

In the past week, the Department of Finance refused a request by two TDs to pay back the 10% pay cut in light of the introduction of a public service pension levy.

The levy was introduced at the start of February and will cost a TD around €10,000 of their salary.

This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Monday, April 06, 2009