Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute on this debate on the level of pensions payable to higher public servants and Ministers. It is a timely motion, particularly in light of the hand-wringing of the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance during Leaders' Questions today when questions were asked about bankers' pensions and pay-offs to former CEOs.

The former CEO of Bank of Ireland received a €3 million lump sum and will receive a pension of more than €0.5 million every year for the rest of his life. The Government wrings its hands, says there is nothing it can do about it, there are contractual arrangements and that it does not like it but it must get on with it. Maybe it cannot do something about it for legal reasons but this motion refers to something about which it can do something and on which it needs to take action right away.

The motion refers to the austerity people are suffering. The Taoiseach is being lauded around Europe and in Time magazine on how he is saving the Irish economy. He is asking people to embrace this austerity and is saying that will get us out of the trouble we are in and take us on the road to recovery. However, there is a failure to tackle the lump sums, the severance payments and the pensions of Ministers in a meaningful way. We constantly read in the newspapers about the amount of money Ministers are paid and we read in recent days that the pensions of the existing Cabinet would require a pension fund of €36 million if it had to get it in the private sector. Members of the public are sickened when they hear that. Members of the Oireachtas are passing these changes and the Government is forcing through the cuts on ordinary citizens but we are not dealing with these issues. In the past couple of weeks, we saw the flat refusal of the Government to have a debate on the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission's budget and Estimate for next year in which we could have highlighted and questioned the ongoing funding of the political system.

The Government could act in regard to these pensions and severance payments and make these changes which would send out a clear signal to the public that it is serious about these changes and that we are all in this together. I call on the Minister to bring forward another financial emergency measures in the public interest Bill and set the severance payments for Ministers and higher civil servants at a level to which ordinary people can relate and with which we expect ordinary workers to be happy. I suggest we set the severance payments at the statutory redundancy rate. We expect workers who are made redundant and who contribute the best part of their lives to the profitability of the factories in which they work to accept a statutory lump sum and, if they are lucky, an extra week or two on top of that as part of their severance payment. We should introduce a system which sets severance payments for Ministers and higher civil servants at statutory redundancy levels. That would be reasonable and acceptable to every citizen. It would lead to more than acceptable lump sums being paid to people in recognition of the fact they have to give up their jobs.

Over the past couple of years, I have spoken to members of Government parties about this issue and they have said it has to be paid and that it is right Deputies, Senators and Ministers should get these big lump sums in recognition of the public service they have provided. I do not believe they should get them. We should set them at the statutory redundancy rate. That would mean a lump sum on retirement of €12,000 for ten years as a Minister, which would be the same as someone working in a factory for ten years would achieve if made redundant. That is something people would really accept and it would send a very clear message to every citizen that the Government and Members of the Houses of the Oireachtas are on their side and are working for them and not against them.

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