Mr Ahern will be just fine with his gross pension of €139,785.34 a year – not to mention €40,00 for every speaking trip to Nigeria!
At €2496 a week he still gets for life, its is a sickening amount wasted!

Cowen gets €138,769.42 a year by the way!

Well, this is a start, anyway

The grossly obsceneFat-Cat pensions MUST be clawed back. The people have just had enough of this crap!

How was that allowed to go on. They expect the people to take huh cuts and are doing the opposite themselves. They should reclaim all expenses on these phones and other perks at least to 2008 when the country started going down the tubes.SHAME ON THEM not that they care.

These kinds of ministerial pensions should not be paid out until the recipient is at retirement age – if at all – and should be at the same rate as the State pension. A referendum on this would have been more useful.

Agree with most of the comments here as regards Bertie etc
The other gripe I have is that Olwyn Enright “retired” her Dail seat recently aged in her mid 30′s with a lump sum of around €130,000 and an annual pension of €22,000 .. What’s the bleedin story there, that’s just plain wrong. We’re gonna have to take to the streets en masse. I think a lot of people fear what the Garda will do to them if they protest ie “will I get arrested”, it’s time the Garda sided with Joe Soap and demand these politicians stop robbing us taxpayers. They as we all know are the real criminals.

Ah Bertie will be ok he can go to the bookies again and win some more money.

Those pair of pr***s Ahern and Cowen should lose a damn sight more than what the article says considering how much the ordinary person has lost living on alot less than above two w**kers.But this is Ireland and the present government will protect the pervious lot,because they look forward to the same crazy “entitlements”.

Obviously North Korea’s not the only place that has “dear leaders”!

Write or email the Minister of Finance and demand all pensions are stopped until age of retirement pension. No more expenses for doing your job such as attending Dail Eireann, T.D’s get a salary like the rest of us and should not be paid extra for doing the job they applied for. As for contract of employment if they complain we know how to give P45′s at the next election, that should soften their cough. Prove all expenses with receipts none of this 2 tier system. Please Sein Fein don’t tell tell me about living on the average industrial wage, what you do with your pay is totally up to you.

The Irish have gone too soft – while politicians ,connected civil servants and the likes are raping our finances our most needy people continue to suffer !

Ah. A good news story. Wonder when will the govt extend this withdrawal of funding to the pensions of former ministers convicted of corruption etc?

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Next should be ministerial salaries and td’s pay and benefits. If they want support then they should lead by example and not just take a paltry cut but a proper one. Plus €7000 for the presidents chair was absurd. The President could also lead by example. One question might be Is there an acceptable level of expense and pay the people would agree with for all politicians????

Absolutely right Alan. Political will is needed.

DublinNass. The cronyism of FG/Lab is exactly like FF. They won’t touch pensions cos they are next in line on the gravy train. Hypocrites the lot of ‘em

Very good point about Olwyn Enright you made Jambie. It’s like a win -win situation for any politician if they decide to give up their Dail Seat. ahern claimed over €300k in phone and secretarial expenses, absolutely criminal. But as others alluded to already this is only window dressing by the current govt.’ Don’t rock the boat too much lads as we’ll be reaching the land of milk and honey soon ourselves’A govt. with real conviction would have made them repay these vast expenses rather than hitting hard stuck homeowners with a property tax. Shame on Gilmore the weasel and Joan burton as well. They all talked a great game in opposition .

Should of been done a long time ago.

Big fat criminals… especially that ahern F**er.

I’ve got to say Liam Cosgrave has went up in my estimation quite a bit, firstly by gifting back some of his pension to the State and then also not claiming any secretarial/mobile expenses since 2001. Where as a certain Mr Ahern managed to claim an incredible €377,000 in 3.5 years.

Cowen pictured above,is he talking State business or is he just ordering the grub?

Aydo I think you’ll find it’s the principal of the whole thing rather than the sum of monies involved. The principal been, they are asking the country to take hits left right and centre while these people are leading or are ex leaders of this country, who are supposedly setting an example for us all to follow. I know, that seems crazy!Is it any wonder none of trust a politician. Public representatives, I think not!

It’s a start, but only a small impact to get headlines.
Pensions as structured now are unsustainable. A cap will eventually be brought in when the illusory growth we are pinning our recovery hopes on doesn’t materialise.
Vested interests need to be tackled, including overblown state pensions, landlords and consultants.

Great distraction from the money we handed to banks who now hand out no loans. I can’t believe people are do concerned with these tiny moneys when the bigger picture is ignored.

Oh come on all of you.
Think of all this austerity, it eventually had to hit the poor ‘retired’* spent out politicians* who put their heart and soul into saving* the country from the dogs*

Retired = holidaying
Politicians = people who feather their own nests
Saving = destroying
Dogs = europe

My heart bleeds for them, not.

The political will to correct these cronyist payments is simply not there………. we have installed successive governments who only talk ‘social solidarity’ when in opposition…….. when elected they assume the mantra — Do as I say, not as I do — as elected representatives their notion of solidarity soon shifts to the pre-existing private capital establishment………….. we might have the votes, but unfortunately they don’t come in little brown envelopes………..

Enda’s grand gesture. Why not get balls and limit all state pensions to €75k – with NO extras. Max 50% of final salary irrespective of grade etc.

We are borrowing to fund current salaries and pensions! Any housewife will tell these clowns that you don’t spend what you do not have. Cut all salaries, pensions and so called benefits until we clear all de dross and restore some not so common Common sense to our greedy self serving politicians and over paid higher public servants!!!

Dub in naas, are you mad????
The Government has already cut the pay of all civil and public servants and introduced a pension levy which is another pay cut by another name.
I’m not sticking up for TD’s or Government ministers or any other Fat Cat in state employment, what I’m saying is that when they want to they can cut pay on employees at a whim.
All of the fat cats of any description whether in state employment or not should have a 60% tax rate placed on them if they earn over 100K simple as that. And for good measure any TD or minister should not be entitled to a pension unless they have served a more realistic amount of time in the employ of the state, 30years for instance and certainly not be allowed to claim double pensions NO MATTER WHAT!!!

bring back hanging for treason and we wouldn’t have to have this conversation………

There MUST be a cap on all state pensions … Full stop. Regardless of position/job/service etc, we cannot afford to pay these type of crazy phone number pensions. our country is broke. Bobby Sands starved himself to death (along with 9 others) to demonstrate to our peoples that there are selfless people willing to do what they can to help all the people on this Island. Then i see the likes of cowen, aherne, hearney et all and my blood boils. These guys should be in prison, not out collecting pension checks every week from the state.

Diet FG = FF

Same bad taste no added sugar.

Its all those Politicians with nothing better to do, sitting there giving things the thumbs down :)

Looking forward to the state funerals of all of these corrupt bas*ards past and present.

a lot of positive comments above which i agree with but i cant understand why they are getn dislike votes instead of more like votes

Perhaps Liam Cosgrave hadn’t heard about it?

We need to be clear on a few things here.

The salaries/pensions of Government Ministers are not covered by the constitution therefore a referendum does not apply.

Like any employee, their salary/pension entitlements is part of their contract of employment.
Therefore their employer (the State) cannot just change that contract as it so wishes. To do so would be breach of contract and would land them in court.

So there’s very little they can do.

Direct your anger at those who *awarded* the increases (Past FF governments) and not those who are trying to reduce them.

Finally, would you *really* think that FG don’t want to get one over on FF by reducing some of their entitlements/pensions ????

Let me know when he looses his head.

We here rumours this morning of a possible emergency budget before the year is out. Also revisiting the Social welfare issue. Because the Government might not be able to reach its targets.So there is a case for them to radically cut the Hugh pensions former Govern minsters and Civil servants are getting.