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THE STATE HAS paid out over €83,000 this year alone to four former taoisigh in expenses for secretarial assistants, airport VIP services and mobile phone usage despite the scheme being scrapped at the beginning of the year.
As part of last year’s budget the government scrapped a scheme that had been in place since 2001 which provided for allowances to employ secretarial assistants, a VIP package at Dublin Airport as well as allowances for the use of mobile phones.
Though the payout of such entitlements ended on 1 January of this year, TheJournal.ie has learned that the some payments continued into March of this year, in what the Department of the Taoiseach called a “transitional measure”.
Other claims, for expenses incurred up to December 2011, have also had to be paid – with a total of €83,425 paid to four former taoisigh, seven months after the scheme was to have ended.
It means that to date a total of €1,774,693 has been paid to a total of six former taoisigh since the scheme was first introduced in August 2001 as a “non statutory initiative” according to figures compiled by this website.
The largest claimant under the scheme was Bertie Ahern, who has received €457,746.77 in entitlements since leaving office in 2008 – including €41,861.06 this year alone.
The payments are intended to cover the employment of a secretarial assistant to support a former taoiseach in carrying out work associated with their former roles, such as their membership of the Council of State.
Payments also cover expenses incurred in using mobile phones and a VIP package at Dublin Airport, which includes assistance with customs and immigration and retrieval of baggage.
The government said last night that the scheme had now been ceased.
In a statement, the Department of Taoiseach said: “The scheme is now terminated.
“In winding up the scheme it was agreed that payments for mobile phone and airport VIP services would be covered until the end of December 2011, so some payments had to be paid in 2012 for services availed of in 2011.
“In addition, as a transitional measure payments for the use of secretarial services were covered under the scheme until the end of March 2012 and this also necessitated some payments being made in 2012.”
In a speech to the Dáil on 7 December last, during debates on the Budget, Taoiseach Enda Kenny stated: “Former Taoisigh are having their staff and phone entitlements withdrawn with effect from 1 January 2012.”
But these entitlements have continued to be paid in the first months of 2012, the government has now admitted.
So far this year, former taoisigh Albert Reynolds, John Bruton, Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen have between them received over €83,000 for claims made towards the end of 2011 and for secretarial assistants until the end of March.
Almost half of this money was paid to Ahern, who this year alone has received €41,539.60 to employ a secretarial assistant and €321.46 for mobile phone expenses.
His former cabinet colleague Cowen has received €22,719.72 for his secretarial assistant and €35.33 for mobile phone expenses.
Reynolds has received €12,569 in respect of his secretarial assistant, while John Bruton has received €6,181.84 for his secretarial assistant and €58.15 for mobile phone expenses.
In total, the scheme of entitlements for six former taoisigh has cost the state in excess of €1.77 million over the last decade.
This included Ahern himself – the biggest claimant, despite having only left office four years ago – who has been paid over €457,700, in addition to his pension of €152,331.66 per year and an initial pension lump sum of over €250,000.
Reynolds has claimed a total €409,800, Bruton has claimed a total of €292,900 and Cowen has claimed a total of €72,600 since leaving office less than 18 months ago.
Former taoiseach Charles Haughey claimed €202,100 before he died in 2006, while his Fine Gael rival in the 1980s, Garret FitzGerald, claimed a total of €339,600 before his death in May of last year.
This means that to date a total of €1,774,693 has been paid out to former taoisigh in expenses in addition to their pensions.
Liam Cosgrave, who was taoiseach between 1973 and 1977, has not made any claims under the scheme.
In addition to the €1.77 million it was disclosed in a parliamentary question last October that the State had also borne the cost of buying two computers for former taoisigh: a €1,440 machine for Brian Cowen and equipment worth €1,913 for Garret FitzGerald.
Further to this, the annual cost of payments for mobile phones in 2003 and 2004 in respect of all former taoisigh totalled €2,567.70 and €9,507.29 respectively but could not be broken down into what each former taoiseach claimed.
TheJournal.ie has also learned that Brian Cowen no longer employs a personal secretary, following the abolition of the allowance scheme, while the Irish Independent reported in June that Ahern continued to employ his long-term secretary at his own expense.
John Bruton declined to say whether or not he still employed a secretarial assistant, telling TheJournal.ie in an email: “This is a private matter.”
Attempts to find out the circumstances of Albert Reynolds’ employment of a secretarial assistant were unsuccessful. In 2008, the former Fianna Fáil leader was excused from giving evidence to the Mahon Tribunal on medical grounds.
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Once again the politicians line their pockets with obscene amounts of money. I have no faith that the public service will ever be reformed.
Some of the comments below are pathetic and embarrassing. Some wanting to have Bertie murdered or strangled. Every time an article like this comes up there is outrage by the keyboard warriors yet none of them do anything about it. Unless we do “a France” on it and have mass protests and strikes we will not be listened to. This mess will continue, the lies will continue, and all that will change are the faces that abuse their positions.
Ahhh Deborah have you ever tried to live on a €12,000 a month pension,? it’s tough out there for these guys & this is why they have to work so hard giving speeches in Nigeria for €40,000 because €12,000 just is not enough. We the Irish people & I mean every last one of us are total wan*ers to let this go on when people are lying awake at night worrying how they are going to pay their electricity bills.
@Shanners- well said! I couldn’t agree more
@Shanners
Yes you are correct, but the flip side is whenever people who are genuinely angry protest peacefully or use compliance as a form of protest the very same keyboard warriors label them as lefty loons, hippies, dossers etc as opposed to encouraging them and banding with them. Therefore I don’t take seriously the majority of people who moan on websites such as this.
Shanners,I agree with you.However it is unfortunate to say that When it comes to the Irish,I am sorry to say that if you look at our history,when the people are called upon,it is always a case of ..I would love to help but…..We all want to protest but there is always something on television or ‘what good will it do anyway’,We won’t be listened to..etc.I fully agree and I have to say that I have no problem letting these wan8ers know that I for one,will not put up with it anymore!!!
@shanners spot on. It’s really is time these parasites were curbed. Not going to happen with ball less Enda.
I agree shanners we’ve become a nation where we put up with anything it’s sick, mass protests is needed, refusing to pay taxes would be a start
And a reader called Brian Kennedy criticeses me for not paying my TV licence!? ( Earlier thread ).
There is your answer Brian.
You just keep on paying your taxes. Good boy. Well done.
After all. Someone has to support these political clowns.
in fairness Shanners, you should be on the street knocking on the doors to get them out if that’s what you think should be done. By you commenting on those people’s lack of action is a lack of action yourself?
It’s not the streets we need to take to. It’s to STAY in our homes for a full 24hr period and do NOTHING and purchase NOTHING, akin to what they did in Greece years ago. They didn’t purchase one iota during the opening times of public service places, i.e. no newspaper, petrol, food, TV, etc. It would rock our government to its knees if the logistics were done properly. It’s not expected that emergency services, and some public services, be part of it.. .. it’s not to affect the everyday person. It is to show the governement that we are the ones who keep the economy ticking over. Although at this stage, there are only just over 1.1m people employed!
;-)!
i know where id stick that money if i saw bertie.another man who should be behind bars
Couldn’t agree more Brendan! Bertie Ahern gets something like €150,000 per year pension plus whatever else he’s making on the side, yet we’re being asked to cover his expenses! Only in Ireland would something like this happen! I mean the circumstantial evidence alone, would be enough in most proper democracies to ensure that this man spent the rest of his life behind bars! Yet again I find myself ashamed of my birthplace.
How surprising that Bertie claimed the most..
Berte created the most wealth in this country so he is entitled to take more of it back
Are you actually kidding? The only thing Bertie created was an even more corrupt state that we’ll struggle to repair for the next few centuries.
@Aiden are you for real? Bertie should be in prison for what he did to this country. Cop yourself on for god sake.
>€250k lump sum, >€150k per yr and he needs expenses of >€100k per yr too? In this day and age when ppl are killing themselves over their debts and worrying about keeping a roof over their children’s heads? He is disgusting and shameless and cares nothing for this country or the people in it.
A crowd of perma-protestors making a career out of causing trouble in a remote part of Mayo is not relevant to this story.
€83k to all taoisigh this year, of which €42k was to Bertie alone. Anyone surprised?
Is there any way I could legally strangle that guy and shake some sense into him??
Bertie should be made sit on the spire!
He’d probably like it too, seeing he has sat on everything else in this island!!
@ Brendan.. Ignore Rocco.. he’s a troll wasting your time & energy.. Bertie should be behind bars …
This article makes me physically ill!
in that case, move your keyboard from the line of fire. you’ll thank me later.
And you still managed to type?
Fair play to you for that!
What do they need secretaries for ? Why are we paying their phone bills ? This money could have saved a family home or two from repossession or fed some families
Or at least paid a few bond holders god love em!! 0pps that would be like throwing buns to a bear they want free billions ah yes Kenny is much better!!!
i said it before and i will say it again.until we get onto the streets in serious protest these people will continue to take vast sums of money even as children suffer in underfunded hospitals .THEY DON’T CARE
anyone want to carry lowery et al on their shoulders in triumph after an election while shouting ye boy ye
Bertie Ahern!! Like a vulture around a rotting carcass… Would you ever Feck off!!
He lives in a parallel universe
I had to laugh at the reason given as being a ‘transitional measure’. At the same time the Dept Social Protection/FAS cut 66% of running costs in the 2012 budget for all CE schemes with immediate effect from the 12th January 2012. Also the Dept of Environment Community & Local Government announced on 16th Dec 2011 that with immediate effect from 31 Dec they were no longer continuing to honour their mainstream budget funding of 400k per annum which was funding 11 community drug projects across Ballyfermot, Tallaght, Clondalkin, Fatima Mansions, Rialto and Inchicore. Happy Christmas eh? It seems what’s sauce for the goose is definitely not sauce for the gander. There are many more examples of cuts which hit with immediate effect and even some which were cut retrospectively! We live in a very unjust society governed largely by self serving arrogant, out of touch and cold hearted people. Not a nice place to be.
Nothing new here folks, move along now… did you honestly expect anything else from these career leeches?
In today’s headlines, shock sweeps the nation as it is revealed that politicians are in fact a grasping bunch of avaricious sociopaths whose only interest is in feathering their own and each other’s nests.
So roughly 77k out of 83k going to FF’ers.
That would be directly proportionate to the amount of FF Taosigh we have had. I don’t agree about these expenses especially when they are all well looked after already and have other income streams but don’t make it a FF thing. Here’s an idea seeing as a pension is supposed to cater for you AFTER your working life – their income from other activity should be subtracted from thier pension and only the balance paid or nothing at all if the case may be.
I despair.
goes to show when John Bruton replies that its a private matter…which is financed by public money,
makes my blood boil to hear that that parasite Ahern is still leeching off the state…we badly need an Irish Spring!!
No, the secretary is no longer paid for out of public money. He was asked (and refused to answer) if he still employed a secretary at his own expense.
it was a question of public interest therefore he should have had the decency to give a plain yes or no…..and if it was a yes he could have simply said it was financed privately…….but keeping mum gives nothing away right??!!!
Glad we could give you a dig-out Bertie. Sure we’d hate to see you stuck …
Very angry right now!
These people make me sick, enough is never enough, however I will say, our government is worse for allowing it to happen. Another broken promise, goes to show there all the one at the end of the day
Our political system is rotten! And not one politician in the Dail has the balls to reform it. We just have to face the facts that we are badly governed by an unaccountable civil service/political elite who will do anything to protect the system they created, and that is purely designed to enrich themselves. It will never change unless we change it! A million man march in Dublin demanding reform would scare the shit out of them.
It’s not going to happen .. us keyboard warriors are never going to get off our arses and march.
It’s time for some flying columns again.
Let’s use our keyboards to let our local representatives of all parties and none know that enough is enough. Remember Mary Harney once said that the electorate have very short memories, well we have come to the time that our memories have to be awakened. Get typing now, all email addresses of TD’s and Senators are easily googled.
This is just DISGUSTING
He is the man that YOU elected to be your leader. It’s hardly fair to criticise his position and it’s benefits after you gave them to him. Enda is doing a better job of running the country than anyone else could manage. Let him have his perks.
Ah but you did. We live in a democracy. Therefore, we all elect our leader. Brian Cowen, Bertie, Enda. All fine men in a tough job. All fine men who did a fine job.
Really Rocco, Kenny will go down in history as biggest traitor of all time
@Anel that statement could go down in history as the greatest overstatement of all time
these board are a joke sometimes
Rocco..yes people in the North Dublin area elected Bertie …but not as leader or Taoiseach.
all of these expenses should be stopped completely. they can well afford to pay for these items from their huge pensions.
The point Arbit… Is that this is only one of many corrupt activities. Enda himself breached many of his promises to date. Quangos for one, advisor salaries. Let’s see him live up to all aspects of his election speeches!!
Being shocked that ex politicians are bleeding us dry is like being surprised that someone in Eastenders is having an affair. Unfortunately Irish people will not protest, strike or have our own ‘Irish spring’. ‘we’ ratify treaty after treaty, we believe self serving liars & are angry but do little or nothing. Nothing changes but the faces, the tune has stayed the same. If you don’t believe me then watch RTÉ tonight after the news. Reeling in the years is an eye opener having watched Bertie condemn those who don’t hold high standards in public office in the year 1998. Nothing will change. Yet.
poor Bertie and Brian this scheme should be reinstated at once otherwise the people of cavan will be out protesting again what an injustice
They do it because we allow them, time to stop blaming the politicians , it’s our fault, they work for us and we let them away with murder so really who is worse? Serious fear of authority in this state, it’s sickening.
I quite agree we should be doing something about it.
The fact that they continue to claim says it all really.
If people won’t march is there a way to clog up government twitter and emails with our outrage and keep it up till they listen. Even lazy people can do that. Rather than scoff can one of you computer gurus tell us how !!
Can I just say… Aaaaahhhhh
This “Keyboard Warrior” has attended every march, protest and meeting that she sees advertised lately. Feet on the Street is paramount because if we don’t act NOW the December Budget will see Irish people living on the streets. Not just unfortunate, single, homeless people that we have sadly become accustomed to, but whole families who have been forced out of their homes by a ruthless regime. Even if you are not personally affected by the recent cuts, show your support for your fellow Country men, women and children. We can slag off these corrupt politicians and the robots who voted them in, until the cows come home but the issue is, Irish People are suffering and we must be seen, heard and united in our rejection of Austerity Measures that are aimed only at the most vulnerable.
Ahern again. Jesus, what a parasite.
Am sick of keeping these parasites..they were parasites in office and are still fleecing the country while working people are struggling to stay in work and businesses are closing daily…this is an absolute outrage. Why are we Irish so docile about this kind of thieving? this is our money. Think of how hard we work to keep these parasites.
Is anybody surprised with this?
There is no point in moaning we as a nation have to stand up and boycott this government! Instead of lying back and taking it up the ****
> “buying two computers for former taoisigh: a €1,440 machine for Brian Cowen and equipment worth €1,913 for Garret FitzGerald.”
Thanks, I now have images of the two lads playing against each other in World of Warcraft. Cowen is Horde, Garret is Alliance. :P
This is disgraceful any money paid to them in 2012 should be taken back seeing as the scheme was scrapped??!! That filthy cheat Ahern claiming the most? Not even surprised….
very stupid!!! …signed Jesus
FFreeloaders (that goes for FG/Lab too)
This doesn’t surprise me at all.
Lots of whining,lots of words,no action.Same old,same old.We are a great nation for bitching but when it comes to action,nothing.The people of this country should take responsibility and shoulder some of the blame in situations like this.These chancers get away with it because the people of this country allow them to…
Now you’re talking!!!!!
€9,507.29 in one year for mobile phones for 4 people. Even back then you unlimited packages were not that expensive.
IF the charade of the Boom was still going on and even though Bertie Ahern was going up the steps for bribes or coming on TV crying for being caught red handed who here thinks he’d still be in office ? I do..Because that’s what happen’ed.Lets be honest most people knew in the back of their minds he was a slippery snake and we still left him in as long as we could to sink the knife deeper and he’s still at it.We have the hump now but as a nation we have to identify the problem alot sooner we have another donkey in office now who cant even speak without help .Maybe we would do much better if we took responsibility for the antics of our now infamous politcans their like children up in the Dail they’l keep going for the cookie jar but only if we let them ..Have things changed !! They haven’t they have total disregaurd and any new aspiring politican coming through the ranks will only mimic what his/her peers are doing nothing will ever change unless we change ourselves and if we dont then we might aswell just say nothing and leave it the way it is..this comment got pulled last time i dont know why..
Well put; a great pont!
Didn’t poor Bertie’s potato crop fail? God love him he must be starving. I’m having a whip round for him, just send money to his Nigerian bank account
When is this sh*ite going to end ?
I have to agree that the only way the “regime” is going to change is by mass protests and civil disobedience. The trouble is that there is nobody with a high enough profile to organise such a movement (most high profile people are part of the “regime”)
They are organised. The Irish people are not. That’s why they will always be able to get away with it.
President Michael D Higgins should come out and speak on behalf of the people of this country .He is our President he is our representative we voted him in he has the power to be a leader for the people who have none.His political career is over he is old he knows whats happening to his country and its people why should he stay silent our President should spearhead the mood of the people that is his job he should engage for us..
Despite the delay, credit to Kenny for shutting this down.
Mad how some will still criticise him for acting against his own self interest rather than yield him even the slightest begrudging recognition of this as a commendable action.
I find it utterly pathetic that Brian Cowen would submit an expenses request of €35 for mobile phone usage. The whole story is utterly scandalous….it shows a group of people completely out of touch with reality.
Michael Davitt once said :”that if the Irish had a weaknes worse than that of drink,it was the lack of moral courage.One of the greatest qualities is that of courage.Courage to speak out openly.When you look at a gteat wrong or a great suffering, YOU HAVE THREE CHOICES, 1) To choose not to see it at all, 2) To look at it and turn away, 3) To look at it and keep your stare on it and decide that you are going to do something about it and I intend to take the later………….Too much talk and NO ACTION..
Aside from the understandable anger, the central point of the story is that the scheme is now over and that it did not end as planned due to the ‘transitional’ period (now there’s an interestingly creative phrase ;-) ).
As for the others and what they claimed, well yes it was excessive and yes the scheme should not have existed but at the same time this has been reported on time and time again and we were all aware of this before previous elections so I don’t think that it is necessary to get too emotional about it.
If we want serious change then we have act, after all populist parties will slowly but surely respond to what they think the voters want (see the boom years for reference!).
Why is it we put up with this garbage . What a bl**dy cheek these people have . Useless shower of misfits .
No surprise that the gouger-in-chief is top of the pile when it comes to supping on this gravy train!
What is corrupt? Do you mean in the legal criminal sense or are you just throwing words around?
If you expect any politician, anywhere, ever, to be able to deliver on all their naive election promises, then you don’t understand politics.
We elected them and we continue to elect them. How about having a look at ourselves and our ambiguous relationship with right and wrong and our sneaking regard for cute hoors, expressed in the form of, ‘well, I don’t know if he/she (usually he) should be in jail or not; all I know is he fixed x, y and z for me?’ That’s who we are.
You’ll all come on here, blow it out your backsides about the scandal of it all. Yet you’ll go vote a similar shower in, If you want change then make it happen!
How can Bertie Ahern sleep at night when it is the old, the disabled and young families who paying for his greed? What type of society have we become? Is this what we want?
No doubt Bertie sleeps very well! At least, in a lot more comfort than many who shiver from want of warmth, unable to afford their heating bills.
Of course it is all unfair, so what can be done?
All the same, before another word is said about benefit scroungers in these posts, the likes of over-indulged fat cats like Bertie need to be shamed and stopped from helping themselves to any more of the diminishing cake! Bertie was, after all, one of the causes of the problem.
The old the disabled and the young families????How about the worker forced to pay more taxes and ending up with merely nothing every week?
People can’t pay their mortgages and are molding their homes while the greedy fat cats get more money.
People it is time. Revolt. Revolt. Revolt
Our history teaches us we don’t protest – we throw bombs instead. More cowardly act and the politicians are well aware of it. They won’t get hurt so they carry on lining their pensions etc.
I think the likes of Robocop beating people over the head with batons are images that have struck fear into a lot of would be protesters.Its just my opinion but individually a citizen is unwilling to protest due to the other minor protests that have been met with alot of intimidation and heavy handness from the authorities.It is hard to motivate yourself to stand in front and take the blow if your not sure the people you take it for will back you up.I saw a man quietly protesting outside an Ulster bank branch and he was mocked and jeered he was’nt there the next day..NON co operation is the only through form of protest but the people need to stick together they only protest Governments really fear is the protest of not doing what they want us to do which is to keep the machine running it could be a mini or a ferrari but by taking the wheels of it it just wont go..they depend on the people to make their regime work.If Irish people think they are alone they are not this is a global problem a European problem even now other countries are building a defense plan against the policies of Politicians Bankers Corporations that have been left do as they see fit with huge populations for so long that even if they tried they probably could not change their mindset.It will come to the stage that whatever people do it will be too late and time is running out..Knock Knock who’s there..The People with the wheels
The Irish and probably the worst of its kind why do you think the rest of the world call us stupid, but we sit back and let it happen, greedy people will keep stealing If there are no consequences.
Next year, they will be giving Bertie a grant for the new GM anti blight potatoes, to ensure his crop doesn’t fail, poor man.
Agreed no one will do much, but that aside the balls on these guys to still be actually claiming these expenses! The cheek of them after all that’s gone on to actually make the claims. Balls of Steel !!! Big KingKong balls of steel!!
Ireland is to take over the presidency of the E.U. soon, there will no doubt be a great deal of media attention focused on the first few days of the presidency, MAKING THIS THE PERFECT TIME TO PROTEST ! AN ALL OUT 1 DAY STRIKE THAT WOULD BRING THE COUNTRY (ESPECIALLY DUBLIN CITY) TO A HALT. the Europe wide media coverage would ensure that the message get’s out there that we the Irish people are no longer willing to be the whipping boys of Merkal and her E.U. bullies, and also drive home to Enda and the coalition that we will not tolerate any more. This of course would take the backing of all the major trade unions ,and that i feel is the stumbling block, would the so called union ‘leaders’ be willing to go against their cronies in office? yet again it would be up to the members of each union to insist that they do so and back the call for a national strike. The only way to get the message across to this government is through hitting them where it hurts most, in their pockets and their over inflated ego’s.
I agree that this day would be a perfect day for a mass protest, however I think that the first protest should mobilise the 400,000 + unemployed people in this country. The workers could then show solidarity by joining a subsequent mass protest. Finally all citizens could use their vote, and vote for any other candidate other than the usual suspects we have witnessed time and time again do nothing they promised.
Kenny couldn’t lie straight in the bed’
have your say