Presidents pick up €799k in pay-outs

Ireland’s three living presidents shared a massive €799,181.03c pension, salary and allowance pot last year — and returned just €91,081.96c to the hard-pressed public they serve.

Details revealed in a series of Department of Finance accounts show the windfall was handed over to Mary Robinson, Mary McAleese and Michael D Higgins, who romped to election victory last November.

They also reveal that in the 51 days after the Nov 11 election last year new President Michael D Higgins received €1,750 a day in salary and allowance, while his predecessor Mary McAleese had a €330 per day pension.

The figures were only released on a sub-section of the department’s website last night.

Among the most eye-catching rates are those involving recently departed president Mary McAleese, who took office at Áras an Uachtaráin in 1997 and stayed throughout the boom years.

In total, Ms McAleese received €570,486.79c from the taxpayer last year, including a €280,298.59 “gross personal remuneration” salary and a €273,346.32c yearly allowance.

For the seven weeks after the Nov 11 election which saw her period in office come to an end, she also received a €16,841.88c pension — the equivalent of €330 a day.

A total of €64,957.98c — or 9% — of this public money was returned.

Despite only taking office on Nov 11, Labour stalwart Michael D Higgins’s payments reached €89,297.50c — split almost evenly between salary and allowance.

The figure means President Higgins received €1,750 a day for the 51 days he was in office last year. He returned €10,624 of this money.

After his election win last year, President Higgins asked for a 23.5% voluntary pay cut, which was put in place by the Government.

This saw the position’s annual salary fall from €325,507 to €249,014, where it currently stands.

The current incumbent also received a €5,952.70c ministerial pension for his previous period in Government, but returned in excess of this figure — €6,611.68c.

The 1990-1997 Irish president Mary Robinson, who became the country’s first ever female head of state when she beat Brian Lenihan Senior and Austin Currie in the era-defining election, also appears on the list.

Ms Robinson received a pension of €139,496.76c last year, of which €15,499.98c was returned to the taxpayer.

The presidential pay- outs will jar considerably with the daily financial experience of the people they are meant to represent.

Latest Central Statistics Office figures from August show the current average Irish wage is €35,767.68c, while pensions have been badly hit due to the economic crisis.