Politician's salaries

finnvalley

A few times in tonight's debate, Gerry Adams raised the issue of the outrageous salaries and perks currently paid to our politicians. The silence of the other four party leaders was deafening, and Pat Kenny was also pretty quiet on the matter. Our senior politicians consistently have the balls to tell the Irish people that we must all share the pain and yet none of them are willing to take the lead.
Unless the electorate get some cop on within the next couple of weeks, we're going to have more of the same, with either Fine Gael, Labour or a combination of both in power - just more pigs waiting to get their snouts into the trough while the rest of us are shafted.

As for Pat Kenny - the highest paid broadcaster in the country - I suppose we could hardly expect him to give credence to the notion of pay capping!

Only by slashing the ludicrously high wages, pensions, perks and severance money paid to politicians, and bringing them into line with the average industrial wage, will we ever see politics attracting the right sort of people - people that have a genuine interest in the welfare of the country, and not simply being in it for their own gain.

Does anyone agree? What's everyone else's point of view on the matter?

Incidentally, I'm not a big Sinn Fein supporter (in fact, my family have very strong connections to Fianna Fail), but in my opinion, SF have got it right on this issue and on the fact that they were the only major party to oppose the Lisbon Treaty, the agreement of which was the final nail in Ireland's coffin, robbing us not only of our sovereignty but also of any negotiating power we might now have had with Europe.

nialldabass

nialldabass wrote: »

+1, Nothing more to add

Use the thanks button in future then

twowheelsonly

Copped that deafening silence as well - and the glossing over it by Pat Kenny.
Also struck by the silence and lack of agreement any time Adams went down the path of politicians there to serve the people rather than the other way around. He spoke a lot of common sense but unfortunately the sums don't seem to add up on the economic front. (But then again, neither did the last lot !!!)

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

Rubik.

Didn't Brian Lenihan, a couple of budgets back, send the Review Body on Higher Remuneration off to Europe in an effort to bring our politicians and top civil servants salaries in line with other similar sized countries?

nialldabass

Papa Smut wrote: »

Use the thanks button in future then

Sorry? I was not thanking him I was agreeing with him
If this is board etiquete then I apologise

Reilly616

finnvalley wrote: »

SF have got it right on this issue and on the fact that they were the only major party to oppose the Lisbon Treaty, the agreement of which was the final nail in Ireland's coffin, robbing us not only of our sovereignty but also of any negotiating power we might now have had with Europe.

Our sovereignty cannot be robbed, it can only be pooled with the consent of the Irish people. In any event, we can decide to leave whenever we want to, becoming fully sovereign again.

Also, due to the way the EU is organised, Ireland (like all smaller EU Member States) has a disproportionately large say in how the EU is run.
Ireland makes up less than 1% of the EU, but in the European Council it gets 2% of the vote. Divided evenly between states, our population would give us just 7 MEPs, but we currently get 12. We also have many vetos. It cannot be said that Lisbon leaves us with no negotiating power. Democratically speaking we have too much!

Watchthelights

The salaries, fiendish Golden Goodbyes, index linked pensions these disconnected people feast on are outrageous when compared with their European counterparts. They must be stopped.

eagle eye

Papa Smut wrote: »

Use the thanks button in future then

I'm sorry but you earned this.

finnvalley

Permabear wrote: »

This post had been deleted.

Given that the majority of politicians in this country come from political dynasties, I don't think it can be claimed that too many poor people enter into national politics.

However, financial status aside, national legislators should not only be regarded as having respectable professional positions, but should also act accordingly. Looking at the current state of this country, how can anyone claim that the ludicrously high salaries awarded in recent years have created legislators who deserve any respect?

Really, when you think about it, what many of them deserve (especially those at the top) is a change in their working environment: namely, a long spell in Mountjoy instead of Leinster House!

Worztron

finnvalley wrote: »

A few times in tonight's debate, Gerry Adams raised the issue of the outrageous salaries and perks currently paid to our politicians. The silence of the other four party leaders was deafening, and Pat Kenny was also pretty quiet on the matter.

Yes, I agree. Pat Kenny as we all know is a money grabbing you know what. He thinks it is okay to steal part of his neighbors garden – WTF? Gerry Adams was spot on. When he brought up about the outrageously high salaries, you could have heard a pin drop. The writing is on the wall. Most of our politicians are self serving money grabber. No wonder our country is in dire straits.

PARKHEAD67

Worztron wrote: »

Yes, I agree. Pat Kenny as we all know is a money grabbing you know what. He thinks it is okay to steal part of his neighbors garden – WTF? Gerry Adams was spot on. When he brought up about the outrageously high salaries, you could have heard a pin drop. The writing is on the wall. Most of our politicians are self serving money grabber. No wonder our country is in dire straits.

Most of em??Greed rules in modern Ireland.The greedier you are the better.And they dont come much greedier than politicians. Brass necks with not an ounce of shame.Big gaff and 4 BMW's-Your the man in modern Ireland.Doesnt matter how you got em or how much you owe.You are the man.I despair. Bring me back 80's Ireland.So much more innocence in comparison.

Worztron

All salaries should be published on a website including all travelling expenses. All increases and decreases should be highlighted.

The politicians are servants of the people but for a long time the politicians have used the people to serve themselves.

Seth Brundle

Varadkar was on the radio this morning explaining how that after the 14k pay decrease and levies, etc. Enda's now 200k salary would be reduced down to 96k gross, about half of what Ahern was taking home.
Isn't he marvellous!

Worztron

There should be a maximum wage/salary. There should be no problem enforcing this in the public sector. In the private sector anyone over a certain amount should be hammered with taxes to bring their take home pay in line.

Lockstep

Meh, for all their posturing about the average industrial wage, Sinn Féin/ ULA TDs receive the same amount as other parties.
The difference is that they spend the difference on the party so it ends up costing the public the same.

the_syco

Worztron wrote: »

In the private sector anyone over a certain amount should be hammered with taxes to bring their take home pay in line.

F**k off back to communist Russia. You are in essence saying that if someone makes a company, it becomes profitable, that they should not benefit from it.

wellsir

the_syco wrote: »

F**k off back to communist Russia. You are in essence saying that if someone makes a company, it becomes profitable, that they should not benefit from it.

Couldn't agree more...

Lockstep

the_syco wrote: »

F**k off back to communist Russia.

Careful now

wellsir

kbannon wrote: »

Varadkar was on the radio this morning explaining how that after the 14k pay decrease and levies, etc. Enda's now 200k salary would be reduced down to 96k gross, about half of what Ahern was taking home.
Isn't he marvellous!

the level of pay is a tricky one, do you want ordinary people running our country or leave it to the independently rich folk to do it?

Seth Brundle

wellsir wrote: »

the level of pay is a tricky one, do you want ordinary people running our country or leave it to the independently rich folk to do it?

Firstly, politicians are supposed to represent us all, not just the rich (I'm not sure where you pulled that one from though).
Secondly, when there is so much unemployment and salary cutbacks why should a teacher be given 200k to lead our country?

We were fed crap for so long (and tended as a whole to accept it) that if you want the best people, you must pay top notch. That was forecasted and subsequently shown to be a pile of crap given where we are.

What I most disagree with is having a leader who earns so much telling people how hard things are going to be for us all.

the groutch

Lockstep wrote: »

Meh, for all their posturing about the average industrial wage, Sinn Féin/ ULA TDs receive the same amount as other parties.
The difference is that they spend the difference on the party so it ends up costing the public the same.

it's better tho than taking corporate donations and brown paper envelopes to fund the party and be in the pocket of property developers or other interest groups

Lockstep

the groutch wrote: »

it's better tho than taking corporate donations and brown paper envelopes to fund the party and be in the pocket of property developers or other interest groups

Chlamydia might be better than gonhorrea but I'm still not a fan of it. Bring in donation controls to deal with this rather than acting like TD salaries going to political parties is a good way of doing things.

To act like Sinn Féin and the ULA are down with the people and saving us cash is blatantly false. I see little difference between my taxes funding a TD's house in Dalkey and going to a party I didn't vote for. Either way, it's the same amount of cash being taken out of public finances.

enda_4

Regarding the governments and all the other public sector wages could and should they not now set about structuring it properly to make it more transparent. I think its Ben & Jerrys ice cream where they have a tiered structure in place where the people at the top can earn a maximum of 7 times the lowest paid worker. This in practice would pull in line ALL public pay and means that if the workers at the bottom take a 10% hit then that (at least) can be applied right across the organisation. That should keep TDs wages in line. Is this plausible or am I missing the point?