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Budget11

Slashwatch: Ministers, Taoiseach and top civil servants feel the pinch

Salary caps for civil servant salaries and an axe taken to Government’s personal pockets announced.

FINANCE MINISTER Brian Lenihan has said his own Cabinet colleagues – and top civil servants – will take a hit along with the rest of the country.

The budget is the first step in the €15bn in cuts that will be imposed as part of the government’s four-year plan, under the watchful eyes of the IMF and the EU.

Minister Lenihan announced that

  • The government will reduce the Taoiseach’s salary by €14,000 per annum while ministers’ pay will be cut by €10,000 per year. That means that Brian Cowen is down €90,000 on his pre-budget salary, Lenihan explained. The Tanaiste’s salary will also be reduced, by €11,000.
  • There will also be changes to the transport arrangements for ministers, he said. One of the government’s jets is to be decommissioned, a second one will not be replaced while car usage by former taoisigh and presidents is to be pooled and the number of gardai assigned to this work reduced.
  • Lenihan says that there will be a cap of €250,000 per annum for civil servants’ salaries. He admits that the proposal may be tricky to impose in the case of some incumbents but insists that the Finance Minister – as a shareholder – can force this through.
  • The minister complimented the efforts, since this crisis began, of President Mary McAleese who has agreed to a slash in her salary but explained that the €250k cap will apply to the next president.
  • Public service pensions above €12,000 per year will be reduced by an average of 4%, while those below will be exempted.
  • There will be a 10% cut in the pay for new entrants to the public service and changes to new entrant’s pension entitlements.

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