Maire Geoghegan-Quinn has relented and given up her pensions from the state until she has finished her term of office as a European Commissioner. So can we now name all the male politicians who are taking TD’s and Ministerial pensions whilst under the age of 66 and employed and ensure that they too ‘donate’ these back to the state?
Bertie Ahern I’m looking at you for starters. And lets have the rest of them. No waiting around until the next Dáil term for it. If it’s good enough for MGQ (well under extreme duress when nearly nobody else was doing it) the rest of them can do likewise now. All those teachers who are TD’s for more than one term should likewise submit their resignations. They can compete for jobs on the open market like everyone else if they lose their seats. Nobody forced them to run for the Dáil.
(My broadband is fixed – I’ll be back blogging – I’m sure ye didn’t miss me.)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=c67adc89-cf93-4d4c-8e4a-ab84d4f7a532)
I fear MGQ will be the one thrown to the mob but outside the current Dail we have former politicians drawing pensions and perks that no one else would get away with.
Ivan Yeats: Draws his TD and Ministeral pensions even though he is far from 65, is a multi-millionaire owner of a chain of book makers and extremely well paid broadcaster. No one but a former TD would get away with that.
John Bruton: EU Ambassador while drawing TD, Ministeral and Taoiseach pensions.
Dick Spring: Draws TD and Ministeral pensions even though he is public interest director of AIB, A director of Fexco, AND he gets a large pension from his disasterous stint as public interest director of Eircom during the period when the public investors basically got conned.
Michael McDowell: Draws TD and Ministeral pensions while one of the best paid Senior councils in the country.
Bertie Ahern: Gets TD, Ministeral and Taoiseach pensions while working as an author, sports journalist and public speaker. Apparently he is also getting paid to be a TD but couldn’t be bothered turning up for that.
Welcome back. Losing your broadband suuuuuuckkkkks.