Political money racket - Credibility undermined once again

The €10,913 added to Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s €200,000 salary last year and the extra €5,000 added to Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore’s €184,000 may not seem terribly significant sums in the grand scheme of things.

However, Mr Kenny’s €200 a week or even Mr Gilmore’s €100 a week represent, for hundreds of thousands of Irish people today, very significant, almost unattainable, life-changing figures.

Apart from the money involved, the additional payments, delivered through the party leader’s allowance scheme by their respective parties, underline once again that when we talk about pay in the public sector, nothing is as it seems. The basic figure, always the one used in public debate, is almost inevitably supplemented by allowances, some pensionable, some not. Some are earned because extra responsibility is accepted. Others are achieved for no reason other than the passage of time.