Cardiff to get €276,000 package

DEPARTMENT OF Finance secretary general Kevin Cardiff will receive an annual remuneration package worth about €276,000 following…

DEPARTMENT OF Finance secretary general Kevin Cardiff will receive an annual remuneration package worth about €276,000 following his appointment as Ireland’s member of the European Court of Auditors.

The Irish Timesreported yesterday on the basis of information previously supplied that his pay would be about €180,000 when he joins the Luxembourg-based court, which oversees the EU's accounts. This, however, is an after-tax figure.

Mr Cardiff stands to receive an annual salary of some €240,000 as well as €36,000 in tax-free living expenses. Members are also entitled to an annual payment of some €9,000 if their spouse does not work and €5,000 for each child.

Mr Cardiff’s current pay is capped at €200,000. It follows that he will not be taking a pay cut when he joins the court next year.

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His nomination, for six years, is still subject to the approval of MEPs. A confirmation hearing before the budgetary control committee is expected in November.

Appointed by the Fianna Fáil-Green government in February 2010, Mr Cardiff was a key figure in the negotiation of Ireland’s EU-International Monetary Fund bailout and in the formulation of the bank guarantee.

He succeeds Eoin O’Shea, who was appointed to see out the second mandate of former Fianna Fáil minister Máire Geoghegan-Quinn when she took the science, research and innovation portfolio. Mr O’Shea will remain until his term expires in February.