TDs snub bid to cut minister pensions
Cowen blow as half refuse to agree reduction amount
Monday June 15 2009
HALF of sitting TDs getting ministerial pensions have snubbed government attempts to get them to agree the amount their payments should be cut.
In another embarrassing blow to his authority, Taoiseach Brian Cowen will now have to force through the pension cuts after failing to get the co-operation of some recipients.
The Department of Finance received replies from only 16 of 31 sitting Oireachtas members who still enjoy ministerial pensions after it wrote to them more than a month ago to seek agreement on a reduction. The others appear to have ignored the letter.
The department has not revealed who has responded. As part of a consultation process, the letter asked the TDs to say what level of cut to their pension they believed would be appropriate.
The failure of nearly half to respond at all to the department's consultation letter will heap pressure on Mr Cowen to make good on the Government's commitment to achieve a reduction by the time the Dail rises next month.
Failure to do so would be a major embarrassment, on top of the decision to allow TDs to keep their long service increments for the current Dail -- which was derided by commentators as a "do as I say, not as I do" approach.
The escalating controversy over pensions for former ministers comes just after it emerged a member of cabinet is being paid a €12,000 public sector pension on top of his €200,000 salary.
In April, Finance Minister Brian Lenihan was forced into an embarrassing climbdown on the outright scrapping of the ministerial pension, which he announced in the emergency Budget.
"The arrangement whereby former ministers are paid ministerial pensions while they are still members of the Oireachtas will be discontinued," he had vowed. But Attorney General Paul Gallagher then advised that the Government could not do this -- and suggested it consult with recipients.
The department then wrote to all the pension recipients in the Dail. More than six weeks have passed and only half of the former officeholders have bothered to reply.
Ex-ministers were asked to think of their own reductions in the "consultation" process approved by Cabinet. It is understood however that at least some of those who did respond have failed to specify any amount by which their pension -- paid on top of a €100,000 Dail deputy's salary -- should be reduced.
It is thought some offered to forego the ministerial pension entirely, while others may have indicated giving up 25pc.
But some of those who did not reply are believed to have snubbed the invitation to force the Government to come up with the level of cut themselves -- rather than passing the buck to recipients.
The Government made it clear that, after the consultation, there would be moves to impose a proportionate reduction in pensions paid to sitting TDs, including former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, in respect of high office previously held.
The cut would be imposed in the current Dail, and from the next general election onwards no TD would be paid a ministerial pension while they were still a member of Dail Eireann or Seanad Eireann, the Government declared.
The dragging of heels over the cuts to the former ministers' pensions comes after it was revealed Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe is getting a teaching pension of €12,000 after tax, or €230.45 per week, in a pension from his time as a college lecturer -- a job he has not held since becoming a TD in 1987. This is on top of his cabinet salary of €200,000 plus other ministerial perks.
Mr O'Keeffe is collecting his pension -- worth more than the average social welfare payment -- as he oversees 32 budget cutbacks in schools.
A Department of Finance spokesman told the Irish Independent that the issue of cutting ex-ministers' pensions would be addressed before the Dail rises for the summer.
In the Budget speech, Mr Lenihan said: "Before we ask anyone else to give, we in this House and in this Government must examine our own costs. Those of us in politics have been entrusted with a great privilege. We must lead by example."
Legislation
It appeared the payment of ministerial pensions to sitting TDs was being ended from the moment of the delivery of the emergency Budget speech.
There were reports that the decision would cost Mr Ahern, in particular, some €110,000 a year. But the Government later clarified that such an immediate end -- which also drew in the issue of long service increments for TDs -- wasn't possible for "legal reasons".
Legislation has been promised to end the additional payments of pensions and increments in future years, but it cannot apply retrospectively.
Labour leader Eamon Gilmore and deputy leader Joan Burton have already written to the department asking that they not be paid the pensions while holding Dail seats, as has Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny.
- Senan Molony Deputy Political Editor
