TAOISEACH BRIAN Cowen last night welcomed the decision by Máire Geoghegan-Quinn to forgo her pension entitlements after calls from a number of Government Ministers for her to review her stance on the issue.
Mr Cowen said: “I’ve stated repeatedly that it was up to people not serving in the Oireachtas to reflect and consider their own positions . . . Máire Geoghegan-Quinn has now done that and I want to acknowledge the gesture that she has made in solidarity with the situation here at home in Ireland.”
Among those who called for Ms Geoghegan-Quinn to give up her ministerial pension yesterday was Green Party leader John Gormley. He said it was “up to people to do the right thing”. Holding a referendum to stop double payment of pensions to politicians would be a poor use of resources because of the small number of people who were in that position, he added.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin had called on Ms Geoghegan-Quinn to reflect on her ministerial pension because it represented a practice from a “different era”.
In Cork, Mr Martin said people in public life should not be drawing a pension when earning a salary. “Pensions are for when one retires . . . She is not doing anything different to people who were in similar situations in the past, but we are in a different situation and in my view people . . . should reflect on that.”
Also at a jobs announcement in Cork yesterday was Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan, who would not directly call on the commissioner to hand back her pension. However Mr Ryan said everyone in politics had an opportunity to set an example and to show leadership.
Minister for Enterprise Batt O’Keeffe said the pension was a matter for Ms Geoghegan-Quinn and it was not up to him to direct her. “Legally [she] has worked for her pension and is entitled to her pension . . . I am in no position to be determining or defining what another person should do.”
Echoing the stance of his party leader, Green senator Dan Boyle said: “Everyone who is in the position of holding a public salary, whether it is from Europe or the Irish Government or the Oireachtas, shouldn’t be in that situation and I have expressed my own personal view that if it isn’t done by means of persuasion, it should be considered by way of legislation.
“There is a need for a wider debate that would be solved in a constitutional referendum,” he said.
Green Party deputy leader Mary White said public figures “in receipt of a multiplicity of pensions should give them up and show leadership”.
She said that “one good salary is sufficient” and “serving politicians” drawing pension payments “sends out the wrong signal” at a time when so many people were losing both their jobs and homes.
She added that the Green Party would support legislation, if necessary, to address the issue which might involve amending the Pensions (Abatement) Act 1965.
Fianna Fáil Minister of State Conor Lenihan said there were many people, including members of other parties, with similar pension entitlements. “It’s up to them to consider the situation facing the exchequer in the context of their own personal situations with regard to the bills they have to meet and the lifestyle they feel they are entitled to,” he said.
Fianna Fáil TD John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny) was one of a number of deputies who called for Ms Geoghegan-Quinn to return her pension, adding that “anyone” who continued in full-time employment should do the same.
Mr McGuinness said it was also time for a public debate on the provision of State cars to former taoisigh, noting that “we are in a different country, a different place and people want to see leadership”.
A spokesman for Fine Gael last night welcomed the commissioner’s decision. He said Fine Gael had called for legislation to be introduced to scrap ministerial pensions for sitting TDs and Senators. The Labour Party has also said the Government should legislate to end the practice.