McDonald clashes with Gilmore on politicians' pay

POLITICIANS CONTINUE to have “runaway, extravagant” levels of pay at a time when the Government is imposing increasing hardship on the public, Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald has claimed.

But Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore accused her of hypocrisy and said Sinn Féin was “at the top end of expenses” claimed by TDs and “they take considerable expenses from a parliament they do not attend”.

During bitter exchanges in the Dáil, Ms McDonald asked the Labour Party’s view on pay for politicians and special advisers. She highlighted comments by Labour Senator John Gilroy on Wednesday when he said Senators earned €27,000 less than TDs. She was “not sure if he was calling for a reduction in the salary of TDs or an increase in Senators’ pay”, but “given the suffering of people this issue needs to be addressed”.

Some 436,000 people are unemployed “yet they still see their politicians, the political class enjoying lavish salaries and perks of office”. She said the Tánaiste earned more than €184,000, six times the average industrial wage, and two of his special advisers earned €168,000 and €155,000.

Rejecting her comments, the Tánaiste said the first decision the Government made in office was to cut the Cabinet’s pay. The Government also cut payments for ministerial transport, which he claimed were down by 65 per cent.

“We also cut or attempted to cut the level of expenses paid to TDs.” But, he said, Sinn Féin expenses claims were at the top end of the league table, to which Sinn Féin TD Pádraig MacLochlainn said he should provide documentation for that claim.

Mr Gilmore also highlighted the Government’s focus on getting investment and employment, and cited a number of recent new jobs announcements.

But Ms McDonald criticised him for defending politicians’ salaries and said his own pay had doubled in the last year when he moved from Opposition to the Government benches.

She asked what message was being sent to unemployed people or lone parents “so brutally dealt with” in the Social Welfare Bill.

“Is the Tánaiste saying to them: ‘Too bad, things are tough, suck up the austerity, but we’re okay Jack?’ ”

But Mr Gilmore, who pointed to cuts of 44 per cent in the take-home pay of senior politicians, said “there’s a limit to the amount of hypocrisy we can take from Sinn Féin”, which “sees nothing wrong with having its members take a salary from a parliament they do not attend at all”, as well as “considerable expenses”.