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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.
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The HSE and, more particular, section 38 health care providers, don’t have a recruitment problem. They have a retention problem caused by a management problem.
Stop treating the symptoms and treat the cause.
@Pauric J O’Brien: ‘The public sector has it too nice!!’ They scream, ‘Reduce wages and benefits NOW!!’ they say… Irish people leave and the same lanterned-jawed m0r0ns start moaning about people moving here who are poor enough to need these jobs. We deserve everything we get.
@Pauric J O’Brien: Exactly. The staff turnover at private healthcare facilities is phenomenal and you only have to look at recruitment agencies online including indeed.ie to see the huge amount of vacancies in this sector especially for healthcare assistants.
Educating medical professionals in Ireland is heavily subsidised by the taxpayer. There should be a three year contractual requirement to work within the Irish health system before being released in order to recoup those costs. The other problem is universities cherry picking international students to fill spaces that Irish students could easily fill. My daughter is in her final year of a medical masters. Half of the students in her year are international, mostly Canadian. The university gets huge fees from international students.
@Skipper Mac: Why should this be just medical professionals…..should it not be all professionals?
@Skipper Mac: so all that will happen then is that people will choose to study abroad. Perhaps making it more appealing for medical professionals to stay in ireland by fixing the issues that are making them leave is a better idea.
Labour’s government started a mass exodus of our young doctor’s & nurses emigrating years ago & actually sent out letters to our young unemployed encouraging them to emigrate & now their begging out for staff.
@Colette Kearns: There never has been a Labour government in Ireland. Get your facts straight before embarrassing yourself again.
@Don Hogan: Eh Joan Burton served as Tanaiste & leader of the Labour Party from 2014 to 2016 & it was herself whom sent out letters to people who were on the dole advising them to emigrate!!
@Colette Kearns: She didn’t like the fact that ordinary folk should own mobile phones either. Thankfully the likes of her and Regina Doherty were sacked by the electorate.
My two nieces, educated by the tax payer in Ireland university etc. both qualified nurses and flying out to Australia next week to work. Sorry we should contract them to do a minimum number of years in Ireland before they escape!
@Michael: that’s not fixing the problem though. If anything it will deter people for entering nursing.
@Michael: The problem is the endemic need to make things worse. As you’ve demonstrated here. Not fully your fault mind, we’re genetically pre-disposed.
Our youngsters are leaving, worst than the eightys.
Deleting comments as usual…
Imagine going to another coutry and begging nurses to come here then telling them how great they’ll have it and when they get here they’ve nowhere to live, will pay high taxes, more for a car, more for insurance, more for road tax, more for electricity, WAY more for rent and get SFA for it. When their wages come in the nurses will see these deductions:
PAYE (expected)
PRSI (expected)
USC 0.5% (WTF)
USC 2% (WTF)
USC 4.5% (WTF)
ASC 1 3.33% (WTF)
ASC 2 3.5% (WTF)
Widows & Orphans (WTF)
If that’s the case the HSE or Government should be reimbursing them their fares if working full time in the system. We need their skills big time never mind tax breaks for Multinationals or Vulture Fund’s.
Of course they are coming here as the wages are probably at least ten times higher,It is for the exact same reasons that our highly expensively trained professionals are going to Australia,Maybe two to three time the salary.Its very simple economics.I would earn at least triple my salary in Australia but I’m happy here and don’t want to go there.Should a nurse in Vietnam immediately down tools and demand ten times her salary as that what her Irish counterparts earn..??? Irish graduates should be contracted post training for a period of in order to contribute revenue towards their training.
have your say