INTERVIEW: Kathleen Lynch says politicians' pensions are under consideration
Minister of State for Disability and Equality Kathleen Lynch has said the Government is giving “active consideration” to ensuring politicians’ pensions will not continue at current rates during its pre-budget discussions.
She said the amounts due for office-holders on retirement were difficult to justify, and people could not be blamed for feeling angry about them.
“I know that Brendan Howlin and, indeed, Michael Noonan have been looking at this area, and I’m not certain those figures will continue into the future. Very difficult to justify it.”
The Irish Times recently calculated the cost of buying office-holders’ pensions in the marketplace. The 15 members of Cabinet will have pension entitlements by the end of the Dáil term that would cost more than €36 million if bought in the market today, while the 15 Ministers of State will have pension entitlements that would cost close to €20 million.
Ms Lynch reacted to the calculation of her total pension of €50,148 if the Government runs its full term, which would cost more than €1.8 million, during an interview with The Irish Times.
“That’s a substantial pension. I’m assuming that will be taxed, but nevertheless, when you consider that people are living on very limited incomes and desperately trying to keep roofs over their heads, I don’t blame people for being angry about figures like this.
“I’m not certain that even if it comes in in terms of the budget that you will be able to put the legislation in place as quickly as people would like, but most definitely I know that it is under active consideration.”
Asked if elderly people could expect to face cuts in the budget, she said while there would be “huge reluctance” in Government “to cut people at the very low end”, everything had to be looked at.
Ms Lynch said many elderly people were dependent on the State but there was a group of older citizens with “significant pensions”. They had paid into those pensions “so it’s not as black-and-white as people would think, but we do have to take a look at everything”.
It would be extremely difficult to “interfere” with pensions retrospectively, “but there are ways of doing it by ways of taxation and caps”.
Ms Lynch pointed to a Dáil speech delivered by her former colleague in the Department of Health Róisín Shortall last Wednesday.
“She spoke about the fact that there is a tax-free lump sum in relation to pensions of €200,000. That’s a significant sum of money. A significant sum of money is half that as well. There are things we should be looking at.”
Ms Lynch is engaged in pre-budget meetings with Minister for Health James Reilly and her fellow Minister of State in the department, Alex White, who replaced Ms Shortall as Minister of State for Primary Care after she had a row with Mr Reilly over the location of primary care centres.
Before the resignation, which Ms Lynch described as an “own goal” for the Government, she had strongly defended Mr Reilly in a Dáil debate on motions of no confidence in him. Ms Shortall failed to make a single reference to her senior colleague.
“It wasn’t a robust defence of Dr Reilly, it was a robust defence of the Government. What was I supposed to do, go in and say, no, he’s a terrible Minister of Health and I’ve no faith in him and no confidence in him?
“That would be the equivalent of saying I’ve no faith in the Government and no confidence in the Government...
“He is doing his very best and we are working under very difficult circumstances.”
