Lee: Money not an issue in leaving politics

MONEY was not a factor in George Lee leaving politics, the former Fine Gael TD insisted, claiming he was earning more in the Dáil than in RTÉ and would soon be on a ministerial wage if he had not quit.

Accusing his former colleagues in FG of a whispering campaign that he quit politics because he was not earning enough, Mr Lee said they need to “get their act together”.

He said: “They need to wake up and look at themselves and burst the bubble that they are in.”

FG education spokesman Brian Hayes who helped Mr Lee to victory as director of his election campaign for last June’s Dublin South by-election, claimed he was “going back to his cushy number in Donnybrook”.

In a bitter war of words between the former colleagues, Mr Hayes told how he was personally upset by the way Mr Lee dealt with his resignation.

“I put so much of my time into making sure his transition into the Dáil was as smooth as possible. I would have preferred had he picked up a phone and spoken to me. At no stage has he rung me about this,” said Mr Hayes.

“You don’t deal with people like that at a personal level. There is an issue of personal responsibility, it doesn’t matter how much you think of yourself,” he said. Mr Hayes said the former Dublin South TD “was surprised with the reduction in his salary when he came into this place”.

He said: “I did have discussions with George, the reality is that he did see a major reduction in his income.

“He regularly spoke to me during the campaign about going for a job. It’s more than a job if you’re elected to Dáil Eireann, when you have a mandate it’s an extraordinary privilege,” he said.

“Even if you are disappointed, do you then say to the 27,000 people that voted for you: ‘Time up. I’m going back to my cushy number in Donnybrook and to hell with you all!’,” said Mr Hayes.

But Mr Lee hit back, saying his former colleagues were “scraping the bottom of the barrel to find an excuse to try and explain what has gone wrong and they can’t accept it’s a matter of principle.”

He said: “They think it’s about money I think that reflects more on them than anybody else. If money was the issue, I would still be there.”

The former RTÉ economics editor said on top of their €100,000 salary, a TD gets a minimum of €27,000 in untaxed expenses, which you would need a €60,000 gross salary to get into your hands.

“If €160,000 isn’t enough for somebody in politics there is something wrong. I can guarantee you that there’s nowhere near an RTÉ salary of €160,000. For most people in RTÉ it is way below that,” he told Pat Kenny.

He later told Today FM if he stayed in politics he would soon be a Government minister “with an enormous salary, enormous perks, enormous pension and a car and everything else that goes with it”.