The Minister for Public Expenditure Brendan Howlin has claimed that he cannot make anymore cuts to politicians’ pensions as he is legally barred from doing so.
Mr Howlin made his comments early today after he released details of former ministers pensions. The figures released reveal that former Taoiseach’s Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen are currently receiving over €80,000 pensions, the final some quoted does not include the separate pensions both men receive outside the Dáil.
Mr Howlin has stated that the public needs to accept that people who currently have high-responsibility jobs need to be paid accordingly. Mr Howlin said: “We should not exclusively look at people who are in politics and exclude senior administrators, judges, the gardaí and senior academics.” Mr Howlin added: “If we are going to have really quality people working in the public sphere I think we need to acknowledge that we are going to have to pay a reasonable rate for these jobs,” said the Minister.