Two TDs pledge not to accept €2,700 pay rise

Two TDs have now confirmed they will not take a proposed pay rise for deputies next April.

Fine Gael's Noel Rock and Independent Michael Fitzmaurice will turn down the €2,700-a-year pay hike.

Cabinet Ministers are likely to turn down their own €4,000 pay increases.

However, Noel Rock said that he will not be nagging his Fine Gael colleagues to do the same.

"No, like I said, I can't do that," he said.

"It’s not my position to do that. If people feel they're in the position to do that, I'd warmly welcome it and encourage it, indeed from all parties, to give the money back to the Exchequer, not simply back to their own party, as Sinn Féin often do, but simply back to the Exchequer and to the taxpayer."