Cabinet to cut ministerial pensions after pleas fail
Legislation to cut the payments paid to 30 former ministers still in the Dáil will be introduced by next week following unsuccessful attempts to get them to surrender part of the lucrative bonus of their own volition.
At least four of the ex-ministers boycotted a plea from the Finance Department to discuss cuts in the pension package.
Laws will now be introduced by the end of next week to reduce the payments in this parliament and stop them being paid at all to new recipients after the next election, with the cabinet expected to consider the matter at its meeting today. The whole affair has been problematic for Taoiseach Brian Cowen since his Government indicated the bonuses would be stopped for sitting TDs and Senators completely in the April crisis budget.
However, in scenes of disarray, the Government said they could not be taken away from Oireachtas members already claiming them for legal reasons, before bowing to pressure from the opposition and getting the Finance Department to write to those concerned to see if a reduction could be agreed.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny replied for all his party members affected, while Labour and Fianna Fáil left it to individuals. A Fianna Fáil spokesperson would not be drawn on speculation the four ex-ministers who snubbed the request were from the party.
“It’s a matter for the TDs individually, between them and the department. We wouldn’t be commenting on it,” the spokesperson said.
Labour leader Eamon Gilmore, finance spokesperson Joan Burton and Wicklow TD Liz McManus have already given up their pensions, as has Fianna Fáil’s Mary O’Rourke. The Government is believed to have taken legal advice stating that it would not be possible to completely stop the payments during the term of the current Oireachtas, but that it is possible to reduce them, once the recipients have been consulted.
The perks vary with Frank Fahey eligible for €41,000 and former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern on an extra €111,000.
Mr Ahern is refusing to say whether or not he is willing to give up all or part of his pension. A spokesperson for the former taoiseach said he replied to the minister for finance on the matter in the time alotted and “that information is with the minister”.
Mr Kenny wants the payments stopped fully.
“Fine Gael proposed that the entitlement to ministerial pensions for serving members of the Oireachtas should be removed.
“Enda Kenny wrote to the Minister for Finance on behalf of all serving members in receipt of ministerial pensions, calling for the entitlement to be ended,” a spokesperson for the FG leader said.
