Workplace Pension

[IRE David H]

Total cost of average TD in the Dáil:

Annual Salary (before Croke Park II): €92,672

Notional annual contribution to pension fund: €92,672

Travel and accommodation allowance (up to): €37,850

Public Representation Allowance: €23,130

Average staff costs (parliamentary assistant + secretarial assistant): €69,000

TD’s contribution: (€5,560)

Total annual cost of each TD to the state: €309,912

Upon retirement, each TD who has served longer than 20 years is furthermore entitled to claim a retirement lump sum of €139,008, a termination lump sum of €15,445, and 12 monthly ‘Termination Payments’ for the first year of retirement, calculated according to number of years of service and amounting to up to a maximum annual payment of €57,920.

Only after all of that does the Deputy’s annual pension officially begin.

[Haironyourchest]

At least Jackie Healy-Rae was worth his salary - in entertainment value if nothing else! Danny is shaping up pretty well too. In all fairness, they're woth it...From the "Independent"

 

And the Kerry TD said he is not in favour of changing the Constitution to allow abortion in cases of fatal foetal abnormalities or rape as "there are ways of dealing with" those issues under our current legal system.

 

Mr Healy-Rae has been adamant in his view that only God can control the weather and came under fire when he denied climate change existed during a Dáil debate.

And now, in an interview with 'Hot Press' magazine, the Kerry TD has insisted the Old Testament story of God telling Noah to build an ark so he could be spared from apocalyptic floods backs up his claim.

 

"I'm basing my views on facts. The facts are there and history proves it. We had the Ice Age. We had Noah's Ark. We had all those stories. We've proof of the Famine in 1740, which was caused by two years of incessant rain," Mr Healy-Rae said.

"There were some centuries when the country was very hot... and then there were different centuries with so much rain and cold. So, those are facts," he added.

 

He also suggested that scientists who are proposing climate change theories are "getting a lot of finance" and that is why they are "more vehement about it".

On the same-sex marriage referendum, he said he voted 'No' as "going back, it was always a man and a woman produced a baby and brought them up. And that's the way I felt it should continue".

 

He also described himself as a practising Catholic but "not a holy Joe" in the interview, due to be published tomorrow.

Mr Healy-Rae, who made history when he and his brother Michael were elected to the Dáil after the last general election, also insisted he would shoot an intruder entering his home in Kilgarvan. "I'd aim for their legs first. I'd immobilise them first, or something like that, if there was no other way of dealing with them. I'd have no problem with that. It's ridiculous where the law actually favours the criminal in some of these incidents," he said.

 

He also believes gardaí should carry guns to give them an "equal chance" against armed criminals.

Mr Healy-Rae repeated his call for gardaí to be given the power to issue drink driving licences to certain people in rural communities.

 

He believes some people should be allowed drink "two or three" pints and still drive home. The idea, which would see gardaí grant permits allowing people drink more than the legal limit, was proposed by the politician three years ago and was aimed at tackling the issue of loneliness among older people living in rural Ireland.

Mr Healy-Rae, who is also a publican, said three of his regular customers fell into depression and took their own lives after drink driving laws prevented them from visiting his pub. However, he does not agree with Minister John Halligan's view that prostitution should be legalised.

 

"I get a lot of requests at clinics and my phone never stops ringing... but I've never been asked by any of those people to see if we could get a woman for them in that way," he said.

He added that he finds it hurtful when some sections of the media make fun of his views, but he does not let it get to him.

 

"The one thing those people miss when they are criticising us, they are also criticising and making little of [those] who voted for us," he said.

Irish Independent

[IRE David H]

Haironyourchest

 

Sorry i meant Enda the Coward and the Bertie and Cowen, they got massive pensions. if you started work as a groundee and then became a climber before being a manager, you would be lucky to get one pension

yet Enda and the like gets a teacher, minister, a td and a taoiseachs, pension when he retires as well as a golden handsake.

 

i like the Rae's.

[Jonny69]

I have struggled to find good staff for 7 years now, most have **** on me somewhere down the line, heared every excuse in the book as to why the didnt turn up! its successful because when everyone else has gone down the pub or on holiday i am still working, or when others have a day off i go out quoting. I put everything back in to invest in new machinery that is just starting to pay off and made a lot of sacrifices. Sick of lads starting out doing tree work then 6 months down the line deciding its not for them and leaving. I think maybe if i could drop on decent lads i wouldnt begrudge paying them a pension, but as a small firm who pays more than fair wages, 5 weeks paid holidays & bank holidays as well as working on job and knock basis how can the government force me to offer a pension to folk who are more than capable of sorting their own future out

 

Cut them down to 20 days holiday and make them start the next job when the first one is done. Should get your pensions contributions back that way.

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

Bit like if you have paid into a mortgage all your life for a house, the moment your in a care home- you have to sell to pay for the care, if you don't have a house to sell/large pot of money they pay for you!

 

 

Heard on the wireless today, it can cost 4K/month in a nursing home. The caller suggested you could take a cruise for less so why not spend your twilight years on a cruise ship - onboard doctor, fine dining, cabin service, pool, drinks etc!

 

Sounds good to me! And offshore so Tax efficient too!!! What's not to like?

[nepia]

Has been done by quite a few Americans for exactly that reason - it's cheaper to live on a cruise liner than in a home.

[skyhuck]

Having had the misfortune to have to spend a fair bit of time in nursing homes recently, the majority of residents would not be safe on a ship and would not know or benefit from being on one.

 

Its all very sad and a future I will certainly endeavour to avoid.

 

There are things far worse than death, IMO.

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

Maybe there's a real opportunity for a business there.

 

Register under a flag of convenience to avoid crushing EU bureaucracy, sit offshore so as to minimise taxation on savings / pensions of clients and provide a first class service with a rotational crew.

[daveindales]

Heard on the wireless today, it can cost 4K/month in a nursing home. The caller suggested you could take a cruise for less so why not spend your twilight years on a cruise ship - onboard doctor, fine dining, cabin service, pool, drinks etc!

 

Sounds good to me! And offshore so Tax efficient too!!! What's not to like?

 

Have you ever been to a doctor on a cruise ship? Took the wife and kids years ago. Had to visit the ship doctor twice with the kids. Wow, they know how to charge.

[Jon Heuch]

Its bollocks! if you want something you go and earn it! you don't sit on your arse waiting for hand me outs! too many folk living beyond their means then ending up with nowt!

Ive had a pension since i was 16 and have always put savings away. because i have a decent business that has being built up through my own hard work determination and a lot of sacrifice its ok for me to financially support others in their old age? what a piss poor country we are slowly becoming.

 

 

Remember you are (or at least should be) paying employer's NI of 13.8% so the extra is not that much extra and if all employer's do the same it's a level playing field. Go to Europe and you will see what real social charges employers are bearing there!

 

I am afraid I find employer's attitudes a sign of what a piss poor country we have already become and this small step forward reverses a little bit the free for all and the awful poverty trap created in this country......and I'm a capitalist! Having seen Directors and Owners pocket millions whilst their staff suffer at work because the employer won't set up a reasonable system of sick pay I have little sympathy. I had a sick care worker cough and splutter over my 95 year old mother the other day....surprise surprise.....she had a cold a few days later. I wonder why?