IRELAND IS AN angry place these days. Some of that anger is misdirected, misplaced or just plain wrong. And some of it is righteous. When it comes to the pay of politicians, special advisors and senior civil servants, along with scandalous pensions and other waste in politics, that righteous anger is fused with a jaded disappointment. People are fed up with a system where those in positions of power gain personally while the majority in society struggle to make ends meet.
When I was elected Mayor of South Dublin earlier this summer, I wanted to make a difference in this turning this anger into action. So, on my first Monday in office, I set about working on a way to cut my pay and make a real difference.
I call this project the Mayor’s Fund. I have surrendered €7,000 of the €45,000 Mayoral allowance, with my colleague Deputy Mayor Eamon Tuffy giving €3,000 of the Deputy Mayoral allowance, to create a new €10,000 fund. When I formally launch it in the coming days, it will be open to community organisations working in the area of youth and sport, older people and the environment, all three of which I had outlined as priorities for my year as Mayor.
The most important reason for doing this is to allow our local community organisations and clubs to apply for the kind of small grants (€250 or €500) which can make the difference in their day-to-day activities or events. But I wanted to make a political point by taking a pay cut too.
This cut runs in tandem with the decision of myself and 13 others on South Dublin County Council to refuse expenses for conferences at home and abroad. Such savings were diverted into providing homeless accommodation in the county. I have also pushed the council to publish all expenses and pay online and I post my own expenses every year.
As Mayor of South Dublin I am paid only a fraction of the high salaries of senior politicians and others in the top echelons. The €45,000 Mayoral allowance here is on top of €15,000 a year remuneration as a councillor, all of which is subject to all the usual taxation and public service deductions.
The overall salary is much less than the pay of senior politicians, special advisors and senior civil servants, but is a very decent wage in an environment of low pay and unemployment across the country. I can afford to take a pay cut in solidarity. So why can’t those higher up do likewise?
Politicians’ pay, perks and pensions have no doubt been a source of controversy across the ages. In Ireland, they got particularly out of hand in the time of the Ahern-led administrations in the Celtic Tiger years. But at the last general election, people voted for and expected a change in the way government and politics in general is carried out.
While the new Government started out in March 2011 with a gesture in cutting the pay of the Taoiseach, Tánaiste, Ministers and Ministers of State, and subsequent public service agreements have meant for some cuts, it simply isn’t enough.
At present, TDs are paid €87,258 and Senators €65,000 per annum. Additional payment is made to the Ceann Comhairle and Leas Ceann Comhairle, to members of the Oireachtas Commission, party whips, party assistant whips and Committee Chairs. Ministers are paid almost €170,000, junior ministers €130,000, the Tánaiste €184,000 and the Taoiseach €200,000 per annum. While all of these are subject to the same taxation and levies as other public servants, the amounts remain too high.
Being a Minister, whether senior or junior, no doubt brings more work and responsibility than a backbench TD. But it also brings more decision-making power and more resources, such as office staff. Where, one might ask, is the actual need to pay a Minister more than a TD?
As a Labour member, albeit one who spoke out against going into Government, it is galling to see Labour Ministers accepting such salaries. I don’t claim to know any of them particularly well, but from what I do know, none are driven by money or wealth. So perhaps their decision to continue to accept such salaries and (see below) employ Advisors on super-high salaries is a sop to the senior Government party. Or perhaps I am being naïve.
The Government continues to employ a large team of Special Advisors to Ministers – as well as some Junior Ministers and the Chief Whip – at a cost of some €3.4 million per annum. Last year, ten of these received money in excess of the government’s own pay cap, which is equivalent to a TD’s salary. Four of them received in excess of €150,000 each. Such salaries are inexcusable in a country of such suffering and struggling.
With the country in its sixth year of an economic crisis, is it so wrong to ask that Ministers and others in receipt of sums over €87,258 per annum are reverted to the TD’s standalone salary?
We shouldn’t seek to pauperise public representatives. Not paying politicians at all, or giving only small salaries, would make politics the exclusive preserve of the rich, as it once was. It is a precarious profession and deserving of a decent wage. But overpayment merely feeds into the cynicism there is around politics and politicians.
There is, of course, a lot more than the pay of Ministers and advisors which needs reform. Senior public and civil servants remain on high salaries despite recent cuts. Expenses for politicians remain too high and we need further transparency and reform. And that isn’t to mention the extortionate levels of wealth in the country as a whole and the need for so-called “wage restraint” at the top of society, rather than the bottom. But this might just be a start.
It is somewhat tricky to calculate the actual savings that might be made under such a scheme, given the taxation and deductions which apply. If the net was cast wide it would run into millions. It might not resolve our national debt but the funds could certainly be put to better use than the bank balance of a small group of well-paid individuals.
With the Budget coming up, it would be a genuine gesture of understanding and solidarity. So how about it?
Dermot Looney is a Labour Party Councillor on South Dublin County Council and the current Mayor of South Dublin.
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