Doyle to give up pension entitlements if elected

PRESIDENTIAL hopeful Avril Doyle has vowed to give up her TD, ministerial and MEP pension entitlements if she is elected to the Áras.

In an interview with the Irish Examiner, the 62-year-old pledged to “rationalise” current payments she is receiving from the public purse.

Ms Doyle is currently entitled to pensions payments of just over €84,000 for her time as a TD, MEP and junior minister.

The former Fine Gael minister has joined three other presidential party hopefuls who will seek the Fine Gael nomination for the presidential election on July 9.

She said: “As a former representative and office-holder, if I was elected as president, there would have to be serious rationalisation of the payment in that case, I’ve no doubt about that.

“I wouldn’t claim all the pensions I’m getting now and the president’s salary.

“I would have to rationalise all of the payments I receive from the public purse at the moment.

“There’s no way you could justify in this day and age, or even in good economic times, of having parallel [payments].”

President Mary McAleese is currently on an annual €250,000 salary after voluntarily taking recent pay cuts.

Ms Doyle ruled out any “dirty tactics” entering the election contest over the coming weeks from her side. She said she had “great regard” for her three party rivals, MEPs Gay Mitchell, Mairead McGuinness and former European Parliament president Pat Cox.

However, the mother-of-three did highlight “constitutional safeguards” the president could invoke.

These included using the Council of State to block legislation. The president also had the power to stop a Taoiseach, who had lost the majority of TDs’ support, from dissolving the Dáil, she noted.

Ms Doyle said if elected to the Áras, she would set a national agenda which would give the office-holder the right to raise matters important to public interest groups.