No surprises there.
By Michael Brennan Deputy Political Editor
Wednesday January 23 2013
FORMER Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has been taking his full €150,000 a year pension since he left the Dail, after reversing his decision to give part of it back to the State.
The revelation comes as new figures released under Freedom of Information legislation show that only seven out of 116 former ministers gave up part of their pensions last year, despite the introduction of a simple system to allow them to do so.
None of the Fianna Fail ministers who presided over the economic crash gave up any part of their pensions.
Mr Ahern gifted back his entire ministerial pension of €83,000 in 2010 amid public outrage over serving politicians being able to claim the payment. And he later criticised the Department of Finance for failing to include his surrender of his pension in its annual accounts. Mr Ahern could not be contacted last night.
Speaking in 2011, he said: "Once the controversy arose I gifted back the entire pension worth €83,000-odd. I gave it up in full once there were calls to do so. But the finance report made no mention of that at all."
However, Mr Ahern had already taken steps to claim his full ministerial pension following his departure from the Dail.
The Irish Independent has learned that on the day of the general election, February 25, 2011, he contacted the Department of Finance to request the payment of his full ministerial pension from then on.
It meant that he surrendered around €14,000 in 2011 to cover the first two months of the year and then claimed €68,723 for the remainder of the year.
According to the latest figures, Mr Ahern received his full ministerial pension of €111,000 and a TD's pension of around €53,000 last year. That brought his total to €164,000, but this fell to €150,000 when the public sector pension cut was applied.
Former Taoiseach Brian Cowen receives the same €150,000 pension.
However, six former ministers did gift back their entire pension to the State last year.
They are President Michael D Higgins (€88,000), EU Commissioner Maire Geoghegan Quinn (€124,000), former Labour junior minister Eithne Fitzgerald (€17,000), former Labour Dublin MEP Proinsias De Rossa (€28,000) and current Fine Gael Dublin MEP Gay Mitchell (€4,627).
Fianna Fail Leinster MEP Liam Aylward, who receives a salary of €91,000 for his work in Brussels, said he had surrendered his ministerial pension of €10,000 last year and would be doing the same this year.
Forfeited
But he confirmed he was still accepting his TD's pension of €53,000 a year. "I paid for the TD's one. That's a different issue," he said.
Former Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave is gifting €5,000 a year from his €144,000 pension.
In total, only seven out of the 116 former ministers who are benefiting from both a TD's and minister's pension gifted back money to the State.
Mr Ahern was not the only former minister to stop gifting back part of his pension once he left the Dail.
Former Fianna Fail junior minister Frank Fahey and former Fianna Fail Education Minister Mary O'Rourke were among those who also went back on to their full ministerial pensions last year, having previously gifted the money to the State while they were in the Dail and Seanad.
Mr Fahey said he had no comment to make.
Ms O'Rourke said she had been the first former minister to give up her pension in 2009 while she was in the Dail.
She said she was now accepting her full pension because she was retired from politics.
"I forfeited well over €100,000 to the State and I feel I have given back a bit of what I got," she said.
The Department of Public Expenditure has confirmed in response to a Freedom of Information request that no other former minister gifted back any of their ministerial pension last year.
Those receiving their full ministerial and TD's pensions include former Justice Minister Dermot Ahern, former Transport Minister Noel Dempsey and former Social Welfare Minister Mary Hanafin.
All of them were part of the Fianna Fail-led Cabinet that presided over the economic collapse and the State's entry into the EU-IMF bailout programme. None of them could be contacted for comment.
- Michael Brennan Deputy Political Editor
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