Sacked ministers to get €53,000 'parachute' pay

D

DerKaiser

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http://www.independent.ie/national-news/sacked-ministers-to-get-836453000-parachute-pay-1714339.html

Effectively they are getting two years pay in compensation, about a weeks pay for every week "worked" compared to the statutory allowance of a two weeks pay for every year worked.

The odds at Paddy Power, an independant observer!, suggest that this government will not even last another year. Reducing the number of Junior ministers will actually cost money.

If true, this is the final straw for me.
 
DerKaiser said:
Effectively they are getting two years pay in compensation
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So this measure will not actually save money for the next 2 years?
The money is small compared to the huge deficeit, but what is the point of reducing the number of junior ministers - trying to soften up the public on budget day?
 
Shawady said:
So this measure will not actually save money for the next 2 years?
The money is small compared to the huge deficeit, but what is the point of reducing the number of junior ministers - trying to soften up the public on budget day?
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It will not save money at all if the government do not last the full term. From what I can see these guys will gain money for doing less if the government lasts less than two years. It's just letting 5 guys away with doing even less than they already do for similar pay.

I've repeated this elsewhere but the governments stance on pay is getting to be a joke. They hide behind benchmarking and bodies set up by themselves to recommend pay levels based on a policy agreed on by themselves. They are the legislators. If they want to put through changes to their pay conditions they shouldn't have a problem getting it voted through
 
So what we get is a 25% cut in junior minister numbers (20 to 15) but also a 10% increase in the cost as we will be paying for the cost of 22 juniors for the next two years. So that's a 25% reduction in productivity for a 10% increase in cost. Well done again the two Brians.
 
Hold on though - they are not out of a job - they are still going to be back benchers & still getting over €100kpa anyway right?
 
I'm sure there are a few positions going in some quangos anyway. I wouldn't worry about them
 

Very nicely put.

If the Indo Article is true then that is the case.

There are so many issues:
  1. Given we have a term of 5 years max for any government and there is often a reshuffle half way through, this 2 years pay rule would be akin to a redundancy bonus of your annual wage payable to retirement!
  2. The ministers voluntarily resigned - Surely there is no way this is payable on resignation
  3. The ministers have not lost their jobs, just taken a demotion. I've never head of a demotion lump sum anywhere else
  4. I thought the purpose of all of this was to save money, it will do the opposite as michaelm points out.
  5. Is this another case of Cowen/Lenihan acting first and not being able to back it up?
  6. What is stopping Cowen/Lenihan from legislating for any of the pay cuts they don't seem to be able to apply to themselves?
  7. The most cynical (and possibly most likely) reason for inaction on these parachute payments would be to keep the 7 demoted ministers in the fold
I thought that when this government realised they would most certainly be voted out at the next election it would free them to make unpopular decisions for the good of the country.

What we seem to have ended up with is unpopular decisions to maintain power to the bitter end
 
These parachute payments are a joke & really annoy me - only in Ireland could the government do a cost saving measure that actually costs money! Why didn't they leave them there & get the work out of them until the end of their term (which I reckon will be sooner rather than later).

I know that if I'd been one of those junior ministers - I'd have had my hand up to go!

In most private sector businesses, people put themselve forward (freely) for such projects & positions so that they might get a promotion down the road.

Apparently (don;t have the evidence to back this up, if anyone does, please post) all, bar 1, of the FF TD have some additional position (minister, junior minister or commitee member). Double pay for half ass job!
 
Statutory redundancy and no more is what it should be.

Their employer (ie us) cannot afford them and their (the government) performance has been abysmal, why are they getting rewarded?
 
Who sets these ridiculous levels? Were they not questioned as to why?
 
Simeon said:
Who sets these ridiculous levels? Were they not questioned as to why?
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They've been slipping all this stuff in during the boom when nobody had any concept of the money we were spending. If they can legislate to bring this in they can legislate it out.
 
dodo said:
Liten to any of the drive talk shows, George,Matt they where all asking why
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And half the country were saying "Shhh - everything's grand - don't spoil it"

Just like Bertie and his "they are all talkin' us into a recession" comments.
 
Just watched the pathetic mcguiness on the late late. He has left the sinking ship of fianna fail ministers and came out with childish pub remedies for fixing the country.All over the country we have the unedifying sight of fianna fail councillors resigning and some even joining opposition parties!Clearly its all about the prospect of career advancement for them and policies are irrelevant.When they eventually reach the holy grail of getting elected with guaranteed pensions etc,sure haven`t they the civil service to advise them on policy and script writers for their speeches and spin doctors for their p.r.
 
It might be stating the obvious, but I think when the dust settles - on the current recession, on big payouts, inept government, public money wastage etc - the one good thing to come out of it will be that people will have a seriously higher expectation of what they want from a politician.

They are really going to have to show results and a previous track record together with a proper, foolproof, expert approved manifesto - they're going to have to bring CVs with them when canvassing!

You read it here first - the days of spin and winks and charm are over for good.
 

Hi Caveat. It may be obvious but it is understated. If this happens the recession is nearly justified. It just would have been better if the politicians could have raised the bar themselves. As they have a say on our incomes, would it not make sense if we had a say on theirs? You remember the big raises that they gave themselves when mere mortals were tied to 2% or 3%. Not to mention that mega raise which they voted on (but public outcry reversed) in the not too distant past.
 

We know your angry when you speech is straightforward and not elequently poetic ala Bill Nighy!
 

Fat fu*kin chance. Didn't happen after the last recession in the 80s, won't happen this time.
 
diarmuidc said:
Statutory redundancy and no more is what it should be.
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Why should they get redundancy at all - they are not being made redundant, they are simply reverting to a lower level role in the same organisation. They are still employed by the same organisation

Jnr Ministries (and indeed all Ministries) are not permanent roles. They are akin to being given a stretch assignment or temporary secondment role in many organisations. You are given a trial period, and then if it doesn't work, back you go to your previous role, on your previous level of pay.
That's all that happened these guys. They should just revert to their previous roles (TD) with their previous T&Cs ... no extra payment at all.
 
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