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The former Taoisigh will receive an annual increase of 17,000 euros in their pensions as part of the salary restoration measures agreed in the Cabinet.
The government has been criticized for restoring salaries to more than 4,000 of the nation’s highest-paid civil servants while refusing to pay female nursing students.
Under the changes, the country’s former leaders will have € 17,180 added to pensions worth more than € 135,000, their ministerial and taoiseach pensions combined.
There were 12% reductions in revenue between € 54,000 and € 60,000, 17% of the next € 40,000 and 28% in any value over € 100,000 under FEMPI measures, meaning that people like Brian Cowen and John Bruton will have made significant cuts to their pensions, which will be restored as of July 1.
However, Bertie Ahern, who is also entitled to the raise, suggested that he would not take it.
He said there was a “substantial review” when he was leaving the Taoiseach office, which he did not take, and instead had taken four subsequent pay cuts.
A spokesman for the Department of Public Expenditure said that the FEMPI measures, which promised to drastically reduce one billion euros of public pay in 2009, had been reversed for 90% of public servants.
However, high-income individuals will need to confirm their restorations before July 2022.
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said that it is never a good time to announce salary restoration.
“If this happened next week or the following week, I have no doubt that we would be accused of trying to hide it before Christmas, and they are very separate issues,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Dáil heard that nursing students, who receive a weekly allowance of € 50, have “held hands with dying Covid patients.”
But Micheál Martin said that nursing students and midwives should never be asked to treat Covid patients and that such cases should be investigated.
“That is an abuse. No hospital and no director of nursing should allow that to happen, particularly in the second wave of Covid, which did not have the same impact as the first wave on hospitalizations or ICU occupancy,” Martin said .
But both Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald and Solidarity-PBP TD Richard Boyd-Barrett suggested that nursing students often feed, dress, and care for the patient.
The Taoiseach said the government “is not refusing to pay anyone” and that a review of the assignments will be finalized at the end of this month and “will lead to higher allowances for nursing students.”
However, Mr. Boyd Barrett asked him to pay the students the health care assistant fee, which they had done at the start of the pandemic.
Ms. McDonald pointed to testimonies from nursing students doing “the hardest work” in the wards and often on their feet for 13-hour shifts.
On the other hand, the Social Democratic co-leader, Catherine Murphy, expressed concern about a move by local authorities to opt for long-term leases instead of purchasing homes under Part V.
“At the end of 25 years, the properties go back to their developers. This appears to be the most expensive way to deliver social housing without assets at the end,” he said.
Mr. Martin said he would look into the matter, but said significant funding has been allocated for affordable housing measures.
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