Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Mr. Michael Woods receives €122,000; Mr. Dick Spring receives €120,000; Mr. Bertie Ahern receives €150,000, while Mr. Brian Cowen the same amount. These are the pensions of which former office holders and others are still in receipt from the State. The Minister has bragged again today that he has introduced emergency legislation to deal with this issue. I believe and hope he understands privately that he has not even begun to deal adequately with this issue. No retired official, politician, Minister or Taoiseach should ever have been in receipt of pensions of that order, certainly not now when we are in the depths of an economic crisis and the Minister is putting his hand in the pockets of the working and middle classes. He told me previously that he could not deal with this issue and cited repeatedly concerns around property rights and pensions. Is that still his position? Is it the issue of property rights that is stopping him from dealing with these pensions?

We talked about the Croke Park phase two agreement a few moments ago. The reduction the Minister envisages in that agreement in the case of pensions of this order - a reduction of 5% - is a joke and a very bad one at that.

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