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Share the Pain
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From the Independent
TAOISEACH Brian Cowen is set to take a 14pc cut to his overall salary in Wednesday’s Budget in an attempt to show that politicians are also willing “to take pain”.
The cut means his salary will have dropped from €285,583 to €228,466.
I am not against high salaries. If you want to best you have to pay the going rate. Like the bankers do and the quality banking service this creates. Ammmmm Ok the recent track record of high salaried professionals is not great but still the idea of paying more to get good people has some merit in my mind. But what bugs me about this statement is earning €228,466 is some how painful? Sharing the pain? Sharing with who? How is €228,466 anyway painful? Doing a Joe Higgins and taking the average industrial wage, now that could be considered sharing the pain. This, is not even a performance related pay review.
Not to mention to 50/60k they get in expenses and allowances each year.
http://thestory.ie/2009/10/15/tdsenator-expenses-2005-2008/
You seem to have two conflicting aims there – attracting people to the cabinet and having them ‘feel the pain’, which is more important?
I think the wages thing is probably a little overstated, Ministers large pay isn’t why they become out of touch. They become out of touch because they become wrapped up in their world of Government Buildings/Ministerial Car and their Department, surrounded by Civil Servants, journalists and hangers on. I think that is probably more damaging then how they get paid.
Also in the 1980s Mervyn Taylor declined a seat at the Cabinet as he couldn’t afford to take break from his solicitors practice. If we massively cut salaries to TDs and Ministers could we return to that?
Eamon Ryan and Brian Lenihan are generally considered two of the better members of the cabinet, and they are two of the newest members. In fact Ryan only entered the Dáil in 2002, before which he ran his own business.
On the other hand, you have the likes of Mary Harney who has been a Party Leader of Minister for close on 16 years. Cowen has been on the frontline for decades. Perhaps term limits for Ministers would be a better way of keeping them in touch?
Andrew, it’s not an either or in terms of what you describe. It can be both the ludicrous salary and the other aspects you mention. But a quarter of a million euro will certainly go quite some way to generating a belief in one’s uniqueness in the state of things.
Re Mervyn Taylor, well, here’s an idea, just as TDs who are teachers or public servants have to resile from their jobs (lets not talk about how people can hold onto their positions for decades) so it should be the same in other areas. Perhaps if we had TDs who had to make a certain sacrifice to become TDs they might take it a little bit more seriously.
That said, I wouldn’t entirely disagree with your notion of term limits.