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Sam Boal/RollingNews.ie
President Michael D Higgins launching his re-election campaign.
# cash in the áras
Three out of five voters think the President should give up all pensions while in office
A new poll has gauged people’s opinions on presidential earnings.
THREE OUT OF five voters think the president should give up their State pension while in office, according to a new poll.
The findings are from the same Paddy Power/Red C poll which yesterday showed that a huge majority want to see Higgins returned as president.
The poll also looked at people’s attitudes towards presidential earnings and salaries and found that a majority felt a president should not be collecting a pension while in office.
The Sunday Times reported last month that President Higgins has continued to draw down €19,000-a-year a pension from NUI Galway during his time in office.
Asked whether state pension payments should be disallowed while a president in office, 60% agreed that they should while 40% disagreed.
Sinn Féin voters were the most likely to support disallowing pensions (74%), followed by Fianna Fáil voters (65%)
Currently, the salary of the president is €249,000 per year.
The opinion poll also asked whether this should be dramatically reduced to the minimum wage of €9.55 per hour.
Almost one in five (19%) agreed that it should but 81% were opposed to the idea.
Sinn Fein voters were again most likely to be in favour of the measure with 31% supporting it.
The poll also looked people’s attitudes towards a united Ireland becoming on the agenda as a result of Brexit.
It found that just over three in five people (61%) would support a united Ireland arising from Brexit, with 39% opposed.
Unsurprisingly, Sinn Féin voters were the most likely to support this, but a majority of both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael voters were also in favour of a united Ireland resulting from Brexit.
Labour and independent voters were opposed.
