Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

A question that arises time and again for me and, I suspect, quite a few Members of this House - in the context of the recent protests and, in a general sense, based on people's experience of austerity and their financial difficulties - concerns the running sore of ministerial pensions. People keep talking about this and are outraged and furious that some of the key Ministers and taoisigh involved in bankrupting this country have walked away with enormous severance payments and salaries. I would like the Minister to give some detail on this. While I know there have been some changes, I contend that even sitting Ministers and taoisigh will be entitled, after just two years of serving in this Government, to a pension. The Taoiseach will get €20,000, while a Minister or the Tánaiste will get €18,000 just after two years. The average civil servant, however, would have to work 40 years to get an equivalent amount. Ministers, on top of being entitled to pensions, get a Deputy's salary and so on. How does the Minister respond to the anger and outrage over that sort of injustice?

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