Pensions controversy - McDaid should give up salary

If Jim McDaid and Noel Treacy do not give up their ministerial pensions by tomorrow, the Government will be forced into an embarrassing Dáil vote when Fine Gael tables a private member’s motion calling for a ban on ministerial pension payments to serving deputies.

Opposition deputies have been particularly critical of Taoiseach Brian Cowen’s failure to speak out on this issue. They accuse him of hiding behind legal arguments. The sense of public outrage would seem to ensure that this is an issue on which the opposition can cause serious embarrassment to the Government.

Deputy McDaid has been refusing to surrender his ministerial pension of €22,487 on what, he says, is a “matter of principle”. He argues such pensions were awarded for genuine reasons of preventing corruption and ensuring that ministers were not head-hunted for the private sector. The Donegal deputy was particularly critical of what he called the “mob-type frenzy” that led to five serving TDs giving up their ministerial pensions last week, and EU Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn surrendered her Dáil and ministerial pensions while she is serving as EU Commissioner.