Kenny: I can do nothing about €700k pay-off

TAOISEACH Enda Kenny says he has been “caught” with the €700,000-plus pension package awarded to a former senior civil servant and there is nothing he can do to reduce the pay-out.

The Taoiseach said the Government would reduce future pension arrangements but that there was nothing he could do about deals already in place.

It emerged on Monday that Dermot McCarthy, formerly the country’s most senior civil servant, left with a package worth over €700,000 when he retired as secretary general of the Department of the Taoiseach in the summer.