Three ‘super junior’ Ministers agree to give back part of controversial pay hike

The three Ministers of State who sit at Cabinet who were to receive a controversial pay top-up have agreed to gift some of the money back to the State.

In a statement this afternoon the Government said that the "three Junior Ministers who sit at Cabinet, Minister Jack Chambers TD, Minister Hildegarde Naughton TD and Minister Pippa Hackett have decided to waive and gift back to the State the increased allocation which was approved by the Dáil last week."

“This is in addition to the 10 per cent pay cut for all Ministers, which was collectively agreed by Cabinet yesterday.”

While the extra third allowance of €16,288 will be waived, the three super juniors will share the remaining two allowances meaning each will receive an extra €10,000 .

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The Dáil last week moved to ensure all three “super junior” Ministers who sit at the Cabinet table get the additional allowance.

Under the previous law two Ministers of State who sit at Cabinet are allowed an extra €16,288 annual allowance along with their ministerial salary of €124,439.

In the last government, even though there were three super junior ministers, just two – minister of state for defence Paul Kehoe and minister of state for disability Finian McGrath – received the allowance.

Minister of state for higher education Mary Mitchell O’Connor was ineligible because of the law.

Meanwhile Taoiseach Micheal Martin has said he will be “gifting back” almost €25,000 to the State but confirmed that it will not affect his pension entitlement. He is returning a portion of his salary to the State as part of the 10 per cent pay cut he announced on Monday for all Cabinet members and Ministers of State. The going rate for his salary is €207,590 and with the cut he will receive €186,331.

Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald said the Taoiseach’s salary would be “€1,500 higher than that of your predecessor Leo Varadkar”. Mr Varadkar received €185,330 as taoiseach when he did not take the pay restoration increments.

During a Dail row over ministerial salaries, the Taoiseach said the €25,000 he is waiving includes “the 2 per cent pay increase for public servants in the autumn which I will not be accepting”

He said outgoing ministers had adopted the policy in recent years to gift any additional increases in relation to the reversal of emergency legislation that cutting salaries during the recession.

Labour Leader Alan Kelly said however there was a need for clarity as he asked if it was a “cut or is it a waiver”. He said that if the Taoiseach was gifting back funds, “that means your pension will be the full amount. Correct me if I’m wrong but it will not be the reduced amount.”

The Taoiseach acknowledged that his pension entitlement would not be affected and was based on the rate the salary was set at. “In terms of the pension you’re correct. The pension entitlement relates to the rate the salary is set at.” But he stressed that it was a “gift back but it’s a de facto cut as well in terms of what one would ordinarily be receiving”.

He said however that he took a significant cut in pension from 2011 and gave back a severance of about €80,000 because he stayed on in politics. “These things don’t get said and I never wanted to say them. I just did it and got on with it.” Mr Martin added that “I’m not in here for that side of things because if I was I’d have been out of here a long time ago”.

Earlier Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan said the ministerial pay cut announced by Taoiseach Micheál Martin on Monday will save the exchequer more than €600,000 per year.

Mr Ryan said the previous Government had also taken a 10 per cent pay cut, and if the current administration had decided not to introduce a cut, Minister’s take home pay would have risen considerably.

Ministers who are gifting 10 per cent of their salary back to the State are still due to receive more in their monthly take home pay than the previous government.

Mr Martin announced the 10 per cent cut for Cabinet members and Ministers of State on Monday.

The cut will take his salary from €207,590 to €186,831.

When he held the office of Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar took home an estimated €185,350 per annum after waiving public pay increases.

Mr Martin has said the Government will also forego a planned two per cent increase in salary due under the public pay deal this October.

A senior source said that it was agreed between the three party leaders that because the previous Government took an effective cut in their take-home salaries, the current Government would do the same.

Mr Varadkar’s new salary in the office of Tánaiste will be €172,000, less than the overall gross salary of €191,403.

Mr Martin has also said that Ministers will not take a planned two per cent increase due in October under the planned pay deal.

‘Not tokenistic’

Speaking at the launch of public consultation for the Luas extension to Finglas Mr Ryan said “the previous Government had a scheme where they gave back 10 per cent of their salaries and this Government yesterday decided to do the same.

“It is the first time I’ve been asked to do it and I’ve been happy to do it,” he said.

Mr Ryan also defended the cut saying “it is not tokenistic, it is very real and it is just a statement by the Cabinet recognising we are in difficult times.”

He saId it was just a small percentage of the spending the Government had to decide upon, but he said “it was the right thing to do”.

Asked if a Minister suffering a 10 per cent reduction in salary could still earn more than a Minister in the last Government, effectually creating a rise in pay from one Government to the next, Mr Ryan said he was not aware of what each Minister’s pay was. “No I wasn’t aware of that, but the basic concept that you give back 10 per cent, that is something that is fairly easy to understand and that is what we agreed to.”

Mr Ryan was also asked about whether the Cabinet was working well together, in the light of remarks by Tánaiste Leo Varadkar on the RTÉ News at One programme over the weekend. Mr Ryan said: “It’s a bit rich. But my sense is that we all work well together. It is a tough time, not an easy time to be in Government”.

He described the efforts to get children back to school this autumn as “a serious bit of work” and the travel arrangements around airport use was “the right way of managing risk”.

Pay supplement

The Government came under intense criticism over a change to legislation, which ensured the three Ministers of State who sit at Cabinet received a €16,288 supplement to their pay.

The change was passed by the Dáil last week. It brought the total pay for Fianna Fáil Government chief whip Jack Chambers and Fine Gael Minister of State for Climate Change and Transport Hildegarde Naughton to €152,181 while Green Party Minister of State for Agriculture Pippa Hackett was to be paid €123,186.

The 10 per cent cut was to apply to their new salaries but will now apply to their old salaries.

Mr Martin admitted the issue around the pay of super juniors could have been “handled better collectively by the Government, I would acknowledge that.”

Government TDs hit out at the decision to increase the pay of Ministers of State who attend the Cabinet in a sign of a growing revolt among both backbenchers and senior figures in the main parties.

Fianna Fáil TD Willie O’Dea said his constituents were “incensed” about the decision and admitted it was “a bad signal” for the new Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Green Party Government to send out.

His party colleague Michael Moynihan told The Irish Times that "stupid mistakes" were presenting a credibility issue for a Government still in its infancy.

A senior figure in Fianna Fáil also said they were “embarrassed” to have voted in favour of the move to increase the pay of so-called super juniors and said it “displayed political insensitivity and stupidity”.