Gormley vows to give rise in salary to party funds

ENVIRONMENT Minister John Gormley last night said he would use his ministerial pay increase to fund his party — meaning the taxpayer is giving money to the Greens by proxy.

In a briefing with journalists, Mr Gormley defended his decision to accept the pay rise, which will see his salary increase by €25,000 to circa €240,000.

“The way I look at it is the Green Party have a system in place whereby we have to give money over to the party. The party will be insisting that we probably up our payments to the party... and they have expressed this wish, in any event.