TDs' salary of €122,000 now treble the average
Study reveals Dail wage bill has soared to more than €20m
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern gets paid €271,822 per year
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Monday February 25 2008
TDs are now earning an average salary of €122,000 - well over three times that of ordinary workers.
A study by the Irish Independent shows TDs are now earning more than €20m -- the first time that landmark has been passed.
Their salaries come before lucrative expenses packages and allowances for offices, phones, travel and subsistence are added.
The massive wage rises accepted by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and his ministers have put politicians' pay into sharp focus.
Despite the Dail sitting for fewer than 100 days a year, the TDs' pay bill now stands at €20.3m -- an average of €122,000 each.
Only 27 out of the 166 TDs are now on the basic salary of €95,363 -- the minimum wage for TDs.
Later this year, this minimum wage will break the €100,000 mark, when pay rises under the 'Towards 2016' wage agreement kick in.
The average industrial wage now stands at around €33,000, only about a third that of a TD. On top of their €95,363 basic salary, TDs are getting a range of pensionable top-up bonuses for holding ministerial office and Oireachtas positions or long-service bonuses.
Top-ups mean 139 TDs are now on salaries over €100,000, including every Fianna Fail and Green Party deputy.
The Irish Independent study comes on the deadline for TDs to state their tax compliance status to the State ethics watchdog.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern is the only TD in the Dail known at the moment to be unable to prove he is entirely tax compliant.
He has given the Standards In Public Office Commission (SIPO) a form from the Revenue Commissioners, saying his tax affairs have yet to be finalised.
Under ethics law introduced by Mr Ahern's government, TDs must submit either a Tax Clearance Certificate or a Tax Application Statement saying they have applied for the clearance cert within nine months of being elected.
But his admission for the first time last week that he did not pay tax on substantial payments he got when Minister for Finance in the 1990s, places the most severe doubts to date over Mr Ahern's claim he is tax compliant.
The revelation also casts a shadow over the tax clearance certificate the Taoiseach provided after the 2002 general election, which is now the subject of a Fine Gael complaint to SIPO. The SIPO board meets today to consider the complaint and review the tax status certificates submitted by TDs.
The meeting is also expected to examine the former Tanaiste Michael McDowell's use of the PD party leader's allowance to pay for opinion polls.
Mr Ahern told the Planning Tribunal he cannot prove the source of the two cheques for IR£5,000 each. He claims one came from his brother, but concedes there is no documentary evidence to back it up.
Neither payment was revealed to the Revenue Commissioners at the time, even though the money would be liable for gift tax or income tax.
The Taoiseach's decision to increase the number of Junior Ministers and Oireachtas committees after the general election means more TDs than ever are benefiting financially from the complex bonus payments structures in Leinster House.
Aside from the 15 Cabinet Ministers, there's another 20 Junior Ministers.
The lucrative Oireachtas in house system sees 23 Oireachtas Committee chairpersons and five members of the body responsible for running the Oireachtas all being paid an extra €19,058.
- Fionnan Sheahan Political Editor
