ONLY 19 of the State’s 148 judges have so far made voluntary contributions in lieu of the pension levy imposed on all public servants.
Between them they have paid just over €60,000 so far.
Arrangements were made last month by the Revenue Commissioners for the judges, who were exempted from the pension levy, to make a voluntary contribution. All payments were to be confidential.
Judges’ salaries range from €295,000 for the Chief Justice to €147,000 for a District Court judge, with High Court judges earning €243,000 a year.
According to figures released yesterday by the Revenue Commissioners, payments amounting to €60,707 have been received from members of the judiciary to date. This includes commitments via standing orders amounting to €14,600 per month.
The mechanism for paying the contribution allows for payments to be monthly, quarterly or annual, and to take various forms, including cheques and standing orders.
Revenue did not indicate how many of the 19 making voluntary contributions signed up to standing orders and how many sent in direct payments. Nor is it known from which court jurisdictions those paying have come.
The voluntary contribution arrangement resulted from discussions between the Chief Justice, Mr Justice Murray, and the chairman of the Revenue Commissioners, Josephine Feehily, which were concluded in April and began shortly after the pension levy Act was passed.
The Act exempted members of the judiciary from paying the levy on the grounds that imposing it on them could be unconstitutional.
The Constitution states: “The remuneration of a judge shall not be reduced during his continuance in office.”
The mechanism was put in place in May – so judges will only have received one pay cheque since.
According to legal sources, those who plan to make quarterly or annual payments will not yet have started to do so. These sources predicted that more judges would be paying when all the different payment options have been exercised.
Some may wait to pay until they finalise their tax affairs at the end of the year.
The Revenue Commissioners said yesterday: “It will be appreciated that, as the payments are voluntary and can be made in respect of varying periods of time, there is no specific date by which payments must be made.”
The Chief Justice issued a statement when the agreement with the Revenue Commissioners was made, stating that, in the light of the economic crisis, it was considered that members of the judiciary should be facilitated in making such payments.
It stressed it was “a matter for each individual judge to decide whether he or she will voluntarily make the contribution in question.”