Paul Gogarty TD calls for 8% pay reduction

[geraghd]

You are becoming tedious!

Gogarty made the proposal >> The Minister said he would take it on board >> He did take it on board.

I'd love to know where you get the idea that Kenny had "absolute power" over the actions of the Paymaster General. The Paymaster General, based on the previous experience of the PD members who asked for something similiar, will not be able to accommodate Kennys "populist nonsense". It was a half baked PR stunt, made up on the hoof because the Press Conference had turned out to be a damp squib, and which has backfired on him completely, both within Fine Gael and among the media.

Sorry, again how do you know he took it on board? If I wrote to the minister to ask for similar cuts last week would you similarly congratulate me and praise the 'fact' that the Minister took my concerns on board?!
The issue of whether the Paymaster General will be able to do what Kenny requested has yet to be clarified so saying its a half baked PR stunt is a tad premature not to mention disingenuous given what Gogarty has just done.

[Myles_per_hour]

It's reasonably clear to my reading. They said they were foregoing their Ministerial pensions for as long as they were sitting TDs, but they ended up paying tax on the foregone income as there was no legal mechanism by which they could refuse the entitlement.

At the time. The government later announced that they were changing the scheme to enable it to be declined. It was not just O'Malley and Molloy who wanted to decline their pensions at the time. Another was former president Patrick Hillery.

It is interesting that the people that the people who at tough economic times unilaterally proposed cutting their personal income were people like O'Malley, Kenny and Hillery, three people universally regarded by friend and foe alike as honest and honourable people. Notice the silence from Bertie Ahern, a man with a whopping pension and who presided over the mistakes that delivered the mess. If ever there was a person who should have taken a cut it is him.

[SPN]

Sorry, again how do you know he took it on board?

The same way Enda Kenny knew he had taken it on board. ;-)

If I wrote to the minister to ask for similar cuts last week would you similarly congratulate me and praise the 'fact' that the Minister took my concerns on board?!

But of course!

The issue of whether the Paymaster General will be able to do what Kenny requested has yet to be clarified so saying its a half baked PR stunt is a tad premature not to mention disingenuous given what Gogarty has just done.

It was a half baked PR stunt when he spouted it out at the Press Conference on the hoof in an ill judged attempt to get airtime.

If he had done his homework in advance he would have known the problems the PDs had with this approach.

Time will tell.

[geraghd]

Well its nice to see you compare my influence over the Minister with that of a backbench TD ;-)

[alonso]

eh does this cut not apply to Ministers only? and senior Civil servants?
So this is very different to Paul's bluster which was for all TDs?

[He3]

Where is the equivalence between a statute-set pension that is already in payment and a variable salary?

And if (which has not been shown by anyone so far) there were some tax law issue causing a hiccup, there are two ways, at least, of proceeding. One is for EK to take the deduction at a nett level that achieves the cut he volunteers to take allowing for the tax tweak, the other is for a fix to the tax law, to facilitate his and other people's wish. Now that the Cabinet is doing the same there can be no difficulty with doing that.

This is a ball of smoke.

If you say so. I'll reserve judgement, if only on the basis that the Finance officials were not able to confirm to Deaglán that this wheeze is in fact possible.

President McAleese is also taking a ten per cent pay cut.

Link

I am sure the officials in the salary section will find a way to facilitate her.