State paid Haughey €79,780 in pension last year

FORMER Taoiseach Charles J Haughey was paid €79,780 in pension last year, while his former political sparring partner Dr Garret FitzGerald was forced to make do with slightly less at €74,794.

Details of the payments are contained in the 2002 audited financial statements of the Exchequer, published yesterday.

They also show what other former political luminaries were paid in 2002 for their services to the State.

Mr Haughey is well up the list of those who do best from the State's coffers, though we all know he could not live on what he was paid as Taoiseach.

If President Mary McAleese decides not to stand for a second term she can look forward to a pension of at least €111,164 a year.

That's what former presidents Dr Patrick Hillery and Mary Robinson were paid in pensions as former heads of State in 2002.

As the current head of State, Mary McAleese will be paid €223,667 in salary, topped up by an allowance of €317,434, bringing her total remuneration package in 2002 to €541,101.

That figure is relative of course and compares with the €3 million figure paid to Sean FitzPatrick, chief executive of the modest-sized Anglo Irish Bank last year.

Other names to jump out from the audited accounts are Marie Geoghegan-Quinn, who abruptly quit domestic politics some years ago for a quieter life in Europe. In 2002 she got a pension of €51,378.

By contrast, John Bruton, former Fine Gael Taoiseach, does rather well, with a pension of €78,770 in the year under review.

Also doing well are former PD leader Des O'Malley on €40,485 while Dr Hillery gets a double bite at the cherry and is paid a pension of €31,542 for his time as a Government minister before moving on to the highest office in the land.

Former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds was paid a pension of €78,703 in 2002.

The accounts also show payments of €479,486 to widows and children of former ministers.

Elsewhere, the audit shows over €2m paid to Fianna Fáil as the biggest political party in the State. Fine Gael got €1.8m and Labour just over €1m.

Payments to the Progressive Democrats were €331,000 while the Green Party got a hand out of €232,629. Sinn Féin and the Socialist Party got more modest sums €182,323 and €50,305 respectively.

The amounts are detailed under allowances for leaders of Government and opposition parties in the accounts.