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Leo Varadkar says that it is “unfortunate” when it comes to pay increases that “the optics are always there.”
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.
Tanaiste told RTÉ that “it doesn’t matter when things are done, it still looks bad, if this happened next week or the following week I have no doubt that they would accuse us of trying to hide it before Christmas, and they are very separated “” he said.
First, the government ministers do not accept the 2% increase.
“I have not received any increase or any minister since the restoration of the increase began five or six years ago.
“They can think of some kind of special pay increase for the Chief Justice or for the justices. That is not the case.
“Here are the facts. Every civil servant in Ireland received two pay raises this year, one in March, one in October and some got a third in the form of an increase including nurses, teachers, civil servants, doctors, firefighters, Gardaí.” . Every public servant got those raises.
“The 2% raise for judges in October was no different than any raise the others got, they got the same 2% raise.”
Also, the Minister of Public Expenditure, Michael McGrath, says that the Government “has its hands tied on the issue.”
“According to the 2017 law, the government has to, by the end of this year, specify a date when the reduction in public service pensions will be completely eliminated,” he said in Newstalk.
“The legal advice is very clear and very strong that it is not open to the government to amend that law to push it further or to set a date for restoration that is so far in the future that it would not be credible.
“That doesn’t mean that everyone has to accept these pension restorations,” he added, noting Supreme Court Chief Justice Frank Clarke’s decision not to accept his pay increase.
Mr. McGrath said the government is committed to addressing the issue of female nursing student pay.
“There will be a review,” he said. “It is in a very advanced stage. It will end at the end of this month and the Government will take an immediate decision to solve it.
He said officials must “consider the implications of every decision we make” and added that paying nursing students would have implications for a “wide range of other students participating in placements.”
“The government will address that problem, and we need to consider the implications for a wide range of other student placements across the system.”
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