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The Cabinet has reversed pension cuts for Taoisigh retirees, ministers and senior public officials who were in office during the financial crisis a decade ago, just a week after refusing to pay nursing students.
The decision of 12 million euros a year will see as many as 4,000 of the highest paid retired civil servants, including former Taoisigh Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen, being released from the pension tax introduced in 2009.
The Cabinet also led the way for pay increases for the whips of opposition parties and the judiciary.
For some opposition whips, the stipend paid in addition to their annual salary of 97,000 euros has doubled.
Labor leader Alan Kelly described the decision as the “final insult” to nursing students and several Fianna Fáil deputies and senators raised concerns about the situation at a meeting of their parliamentary party last night.
In its weekly meeting, the Government ended the operation of the Public Service Pension Reduction (PSPR), introduced within the framework of the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Laws. This means that pension reductions will cease to apply to public service pensions as of July 1, 2021.
“As required by law, we are now at the point where the remaining 3% of public service retirees must be removed from the impact of the PSPR in the next period,” said Minister of Public Expenditure, Michael McGrath.
Article 27 of the 2017 Law provided the longest postponement, legally permissible, until the restoration of the pension reductions.
Requires an order to be made by December 31, 2020, providing a date for restoration of pension reductions.
“I am advised that this requires that the reduction be reinstated within a reasonable time from the issuance of the order which, taking into account the provisions of the law, could not be later than July 1, 2021,” said Mr. McGrath.
At their weekly meeting, the ministers also approved plans to give legal effect to a 2% salary increase for the judiciary in line with other increases in the public sector.
The ministers also gave their consent to an increased tolerance for party whips, which act as conveners of their parties in the Dáil.
A raise of € 10,000 to € 19,000 is believed to have been signed for the Sinn Féin Pádraig Mac Lochlainn whip and the assistant Sinn Féin whip will receive an increase from € 5,000 to € 9,500.
Under the new payment scheme, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil whips will receive € 10,000.
For the smaller parties, the Green Party, Labor, Solidarity / People before profit and the Social Democrats will receive an allocation of 6,000 euros, the ministers have said.
The three “super junior” ministers who sit at the cabinet table will share 32,000 euros in allocations between them from today.
This is opposed to receiving a subsidy of € 16,000 each.
“It is the final insult to nursing students and midwives that the cabinet saw fit to approve salary increases for thousands of workers, but not to address frontline students who are doing critical unpaid work in the fight against Covid-19. while they keep their studies we go, ”said Mr. Kelly.
At a meeting of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party last night, TD and senators expressed their anger at the negative public reaction to opposing the payment of nursing students and then to the Cabinet granting salary increases to judges and politicians.
Cork East TD James O’Connor said the damage to Fianna Fáil will be long-lasting due to the problem of nursing students.
“We will be massacred in a general election,” he said. “Our presence on social media is appalling.”
Senator Malcolm Byrne told colleagues that the prospect of salary increases for judges in the face of refusal to pay nursing students “doesn’t look good,” adding that the party is “on the defensive.”
Cork North Central TD Padraig O’Sullivan agreed that harm has been done, while Senator Eugene Murphy said mistakes were made by refusing to pay the nurses.
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