SALARY REDUCTIONS:MINISTER FOR Finance Brian Lenihan last night defended the cut in the salaries of Taoiseach Brian Cowen and his ministerial colleagues following Opposition claims the move was a "scam".
Mr Lenihan yesterday announced a 20 per cent reduction in Mr Cowen’s salary, reducing it by almost €60,000 to €228,000, and a 15 per cent reduction in the salary of all senior Ministers, to €191,000.
However, Fine Gael and Labour claimed the real cut was only 10 per cent for Mr Cowen and 5 per cent for Ministers, as yesterday’s announcement did not take into account the voluntary pay cut of 10 per cent that the Cabinet took last year.
Ministers would suffer little compared to low-paid public sector workers who will face cuts of above 5 per cent if they earn as little as €31,000, they argued.
Fine Gael deputy leader Richard Bruton claimed the Government’s attempt to portray it as a 15 per cent pay cut was false and deceptive. He claimed an office cleaner in Mr Lenihan’s office would take a proportionately greater cut than the Minister.
Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said: “This 5 per cent is exactly the same reduction in pay that the Government plans to impose on a county council worker or a cleaner earning €30,000 or less per year – less than one-sixth of their own inflated salaries.
“The manner in which this cut was announced by Minister Lenihan was a scam, designed to mislead the public,” he added.
There was also criticism of the Budget announcement that judges’ pay would not be reduced, though those on social welfare were facing cuts of 4 per cent.
Mr Lenihan said that if that was all the Opposition could come up with by way of criticism of the Budget, it was derisory. “This is terrible stuff,” he said. Ministers had taken a reduction last year that was purely voluntary and the 15 per cent reduction in salaries was permanent and would affect their pensions, he added.
He said the review body for higher remuneration had said Irish High Court judges were paid a similar amount to their British counterparts but a reduction should be applied because of the recession.
The Government had decided not to increase judges’ salaries during its term, he added.
In the first and critical Budget vote last night, which reduced excise rates on alcohol, the Government had a comfortable majority of 88 to 75, writes Marie O’Halloran.
Sinn Féin and Independents Noel Grealish, Jackie Healy-Rae and Michael Lowry supported the Government, as did the three Fianna Fáil deputies who are outside the parliamentary party – Jim McDaid, Jimmy Devins and Eamon Scanlon.
Independents Maureen O’Sullivan, Finian McGrath and Joe Behan voted with Fine Gael and Labour, who opposed the reduction, which came into effect at midnight last night.
Taoiseach Brian Mr Cowen said the measure was “being introduced in order to protect revenue flows and to tackle the phenomenon of cross-Border shopping, which is having an increasingly negative effect on our economy”.
He added that “Ireland will still have the highest excise rates for sparkling wine in the EU, the second-highest rate for still wine after Finland, and the third highest excise rate on spirits after Sweden and Finland, and fourth highest excise rates on beer after Finland, the UK and Sweden”.
Mr Cowen insisted that “responsible drinking is not determined by the level of excise. If it were, then we wouldn’t have the alcohol problems that we do have in this country because we have the highest excise levels in many cases across the whole European Union. It is a nebulous argument.”