Outgoing EU commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn has declined to confirm whether she will seek payment of her ministerial and TD's pension, when she steps down from the European Commission next month.
Speaking in Washington, Ms Geoghegan-Quinn said she had "no idea" whether she would start receiving her Irish TD and ministerial pensions again, worth more than €100,000 a year. The former Fianna Fáil TD and minister agreed under political pressure in April 2010 to forgo her pensions from her time as a member of the Dáil and the cabinet for the duration of her five-year term as commissioner for research, innovation and science, when she was paid a basic salary of €250,000 a year.
‘Very well paid’
A Government spokeswoman said it was a matter for the individual concerned to decide whether to seek payment of the ministerial and TD pensions.
On leaving the commission Ms Geoghegan-Quinn, who will turn 65 next year, will be entitled to a three-year transition payment from the commission worth more than €400,000, plus a pension of more than €55,000 a year. She will also technically be entitled to a pension from the European Court of Auditors, which could be worth up to €100,000.
Speaking in Washington on Thursday night, where she was being honoured by the European Institute in Washington for her work as EU commissioner for research and innovation, Ms Geoghegan-Quinn said she would not receive the five years' worth of Irish parliamentary pensions she "gifted" in 2010 after leaving Brussels.
“Well you never get back anything that you’ve gifted. You’ve gifted it and that’s it and it’s gone and you forget about it,” she said.“I have had a great five years. I have been very well paid for the five years. Why would I want to get my pensions back for that period of time?”
Asked whether her Oireachtas and Irish ministerial pensions would start to be paid to her again now that her five-year term at the commission is ending, she said: "I don't know what happens actually in relation to that. I have no idea."
Advice for Hogan
She told Irish reporters in Washington she passed on “a lot of advice” to Ireland’s new commissioner,
Phil Hogan
, coaching him ahead of his confirmation hearing in the agricultural portfolio.
“The thing that I said was get to know the MEPs in advance of your hearing, work with them, listen to what they say to you and then learn all the topics within the portfolio,” she said.
Describing Mr Hogan as “eminently suitable” for the job, she said she watched the hearing from New York at 3am yesterday and was “very proud” that the agriculture committee ratified him as commissioner.
Ms Geoghegan-Quinn, Ireland’s first female cabinet member since the foundation of the State and a 22-year veteran of the Dáil, ruled out a return to politics, saying she planned to take six months off and spend time with her family before considering her next move.
Last month, she received France’s highest honour, the Légion d’Honneur, for her services to research and innovation.
