Madam, – It is especially noteworthy that the fears expressed by a senior judge to Carol Coulter (Home News, May 7th) about the judiciary’s pension fund tax liabilities did even make an indirect allusion to the concept of social solidarity with the thousands of citizens burdened by the consequences of the financial meltdown, negative equity and their daunting personal challenge of basic economic survival. These are the people whose taxes underwrite the loans that pay judges’ pensions.
The €125,000 annual pension payable by the State to High Court judges retiring at 70 from a secure position, which they cannot be normally fired from, is generous by any standards. Nations that provide the resources to pay these pensions, such as Sweden, Denmark and Germany, pay a High Court judge a salary of less than €80,000 a year, according to a survey of judicial pay in 28 OECD nations published in 2009 by Harvard University in the Journal of Legal Analysis.
If the judiciary are not seeking any exemption, or special treatment, why is it necessary for them to conduct megaphone diplomacy through the media or even raise it with the Taoiseach? Why could the dialogue with respect to paying due tax not take place confidentially with the Revenue Commissioners in the same context as the dialogue concerning the voluntary payments that some of them make as an alternative to the public-sector pension levy – which is also a component of the cash to pay judges’ pensions and lump sums, as there is no actual pension fund in place? The Chairman of the Revenue Commissioners could then report on the outcome of such discussions and defend any decision reached. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – The solution is easy. Let the judges take a pay cut like pretty well everyone else has; that will reduce their pension pot and possible tax liability. – Yours, etc,