How does getting a €20,000 pay boost sound? Not bad when it means you’ll be netting €100,000 per year, just like one of President Higgins’ advisors.
The Irish Daily Mirror reports this morning that President Higgins, who’s only in office 6 months out of a seven-year term, has already broken the Government pay cap by giving one of his special advisors a meaty €20,000 pay boost. That’s close to a year’s wage for some of us ‘normal’ people.
There were no brown paper envelopes used (that we know of), as the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform signed off on the deal which sees President Higgins forking over €103,472 to his advisor Mary van Lieshout when she should be getting just €80,051 – which is still a nice chunk of change.
The generous pay checks don’t stop there. President Higgins’ press officer, Sarah Martin, is also getting more than the advised pay cap. She is receiving €75,934 when she should only be getting €61,966, according to the Irish daily Mirror.
Higgins is also being allowed to take on one extra member of staff, which our previous president, Mary McAleese, didn’t have. However, the President has promised to find savings around the Áras to make up for the new member.
Fine Gael TD Paschal Donohue has defended the increase, saying, “President Higgins has a huge variety of additional responsibilities.
“For example he is the person that has the ability to make a decision about a piece of legislation, he has the Council of State, he has the capacity to accept or refuse a decision from the Taoiseach to go to a General Election,
“I mean, he has a huge variety of other posts and responsibilities, at home and abroad, not as public, but are of huge importance.”
We don’t know about you, but that last bit makes him sound like Batman.
