IT EMERGED this lunchtime that the current Irish member on the European Court of Auditors, Eoin O’Shea, emailed influential members of the European Parliament’s budgetary control committee to lobby against the appointment of Kevin Cardiff.
In an amazing disclosure, O’Shea said he had emailed the conveners of the two largest groups on the parliament – apparently frustrated that he had not been nominated by the government to retain the job.
O’Shea, 35, was appointed to the Court in 2010 to fill the vacancy left by Máire Geoghegan-Quinn who had been appointed to the European Commission.
TheJournal.ie has been supplied with details of the salary and expenses due to members of the Luxembourg-based court – and the figures show precisely why anyone would want the position.
Let’s start at the beginning.
€229,362 – €244,228 – The basic salary for the job. It’s paid monthly, with nominees earning at least €19,113 per month, rising to €20,352.33 – seemingly based on experience within the role.
15 per cent – The bonus paid on top of the basic salary as a ‘Residential/Expatriation allowance’ – essentially a top-up for having to move away from home in the first place.
2 per cent, plus €164.27 - The allowance paid if the appointee is part of a household.
€358.96 - The allowance paid if the appointee has a dependant child…
€87.69 - The allowance paid, on top of that, if the child is in pre-school…
€243.55 – …or if the child is in full-time education…
€487.10 – …or if the child is in education away from the auditor’s place of work.
€38,227 – €40,704 - On top of the 15 per cent allowance, members are entitled to an initial bonus for ‘installation expenses’ – as well as having their family travel expenses, and all of their moving expenses, reimbursed in full.
€19,114 – €20,352 – Even when they’re leaving the court, at the end of their tenure, they get ‘resettlement expenses’ – which, again, includes the total refund of family travel and moving expenses.
65 per cent – The first year after they’re off the court, members get 65 per cent of their salary…
40 per cent – …sliding down to 40 per cent after three years, when they drop off.
100 per cent – The European Union covers the entirety of an auditor’s health insurance bills, though members pay 1.8 per cent of their salary towards this.
70 per cent – The maximum amount of a member’s salary which is provided as a pension.
8-45 per cent – The amount of tax judges pay on their salaries, being resident in Luxembourg.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say