Ken Foxe, for the RTÉ Investigations Unit, has created a database of ministerial pay and expenses from March 2011 until the end of December 2014.
It follows a database that Mr Foxe created in January which outlined TDs and Senators’ pay, allowances and expenses from March 2011 until the end of July 2014.
In his latest investigation, Mr Foxe found that, as a whole, Government ministers have received approximately €27million in pay and expenses since the Fine Gael/Labour coalition was formed in 2011, while the average amount paid to each minister during the period was €631,000.
He also found:
· Almost €1.6 million was paid in mileage on an unvouched basis.
· The mileage bill rose each year since 2011 to €473,000 in 2014.
· An Taoiseach Enda Kenny was paid more than €780,000 in salary, expenses and other costs during the period, and is top of the list.
· Nine other senior politicians were paid or reimbursed in excess of €700,000 (at least €186,666 annually) between the election and the end of 2014. They are in descending order: Simon Coveney, Jimmy Deenihan, Leo Varadkar, Phil Hogan, James Reilly, Michael Noonan, Brendan Howlin, Joan Burton and Eamon Gilmore.
· Costs for a further 16 senior politicians exceeded €600,000 (a minimum €160,000 annually).
· At least one government minister chose not to take part of their salary and this is reflected in the database. Minister Joan Burton did not take the allowance she is entitled to as Tánaiste, which would be approximately €15,000 annually.
· €165,608 paid for ministerial mobiles and broadband while an additional €75,601 was paid for landlines at home or in constituency offices.
View the database here
Ministers paid more than €27 million in pay and expenses (RTE)
Previously: On Your Dime
Thanks Laura Fitzgerald
Not a story. Things cost money. Government ministers are busy and travel and communicate often.
balls.apart from paying these overinflated salaries, the level of service from government is overall extremely poor. the accounting system is not robust enough, and government procurement procedure does not seek to establish maximum value for money. and remember, each of these ministers will retire on full pension from next year.
And for some, years and years under the state pensionable age.
The idea that any of them suffered in the recession is completely ridiculous.
I have no problem with expenses/mileage etc. but clearly this should all be on a vouched basis.
Simple as.
Not to weigh in on the nothing to see hear/this is an outrage buzz, but the fact that someone created the database is fairly cool. It’s public money and should be publicly available in a ready and easy to read format, not via FoI requests or anything else.
Kudos to him.
I think rolling 5 years of pay into a single context free figure isn’t exactly fair.
Also, this is the usual Ken Foxe story where it seems all he does is FOI the cost of things and tries to present them in the worst possible light.
True, was thinking that, fair point
So an average near €190,000 a year is not a story then? Or how some are able to double their salary with add ons from “expenses”. Wish I could claim the stare for my work cost.
I must apologise, I scanned through that quickly and misinterpreted it.
Your work isn’t nearly as important.
maybe not, but there’s a high probability anom does his/her work better than most TDs do theirs.
Oh i don’t. …believe me. But iv big plans BIG PLANS.
Isn’t the real “scandal”, not how much they get paid, but the mediocre caliber of the people who get these jobs. Garbage in, garbage out….
OMG a minister has to buy flights for work and this is then reimbursed?
We need another Tribunal!
OMG! Dublin based politicians get to scam thousands a year in travel expenses in and out to the Dail. And for a lot of politicians, the monthly expenses remain the same when the Dail isn’t in session!
in the uk, MPs get jailed for fiddling expenses. over here there’s a system ready made to cover your @rse.
Who cares?
Ken, can you compile a DB covering the same period for elected officials in the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Denmark, Norway, Italy? Then I’ll know if there’s ire to be raised. Otherwise, nice DB, thanks man.
I’ll save my outrage for the article stating that a minister couldn’t check their email as their cheaper data plan wouldn’t allow it or a minister missed a dail sitting as they were waiting nine hours in Brussels to get a cheaper flight back.
I wonder what RTE expenses were for the same period
They’re worth every penny coz L’Oreal told them so.
It’s NEVER gonna stop folks.
Would anyone here turn down free money?
Well, I voted against FF on more than one occasion when they were promising a reduction in my tax rate, does that count?