Ex-ministers haven’t given up pensions – they’ve only deferred them

POLITICIANS across the board will expect thanks for deciding, under pressure, to stop claiming pensions on top of other salaries they are in receipt of from the public purse.

Yet again, they will fail to tell the full story. What they have done is given a commitment not to claim a pension while in current positions. They have not foregone their right to these pensions and all that will happen is that the pension will build up waiting for them to claim it in due course.

They have form in this regard.

Remember when Des O’Malley and Bobby Molloy made great play out of not claiming the pensions they were “entitled to” while in the first FF/PD government. They forgot to mention that when they did claim their pensions they also received every single penny of the pensions they had “given up” as an additional payment, with the net result there was no saving to the taxpayer.

So unless Brian Lenihan – who we are constantly told is the great white hope for the future of Fianna Fáil – brings in legislation retrospectively to remove all of these pensions not just from politicians, but the large number of senior officials from judges and former politicians to past and present department officials, then all that has happened is that all these politicians have instead set up a nice savings account for themselves, into which the pensions they have “foregone” will accrue until such time as they decide public attention is elsewhere and they’ll start quietly to claim them again.

At the next general election voters should cast give their number one, two and three preferences for first-time candidates of their choice and only then continue their preferences for any candidates who are, or have been, members of the Oireachtas.

Desmond FitzGerald

Canary Wharf

London