We now live in an age of cutbacks, economic austerity and diminished financial reward. We are told that we are all in this together and that we are all feeling the pain. That some people will not feel the financial pain to the same degree as others is a fact of life. Some of these are the very highly paid, such as senior executives from some of the larger companies who will take home huge salaries. They will take home these salaries if and only if they do their jobs effectively, generate acceptable results and display high levels of competence. If not they will be fired. That is the way the real world works.
Conventional wisdom would have it that given Ireland’s small size it should be easier to govern than a much larger economy. So we would expect to pay our political leaders a salary commensurate with the scale and scope of the position for that too is the way in the real world. If so our expectations are wrong! Amazingly in a list of the worlds most highly paid politicians Brian Cowen ranks as the fourth most highly paid head of state. The top 10 most highly paid politicians worldwide are:
1 ) Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister of Singapore who has an annual salary of $2.75 million. 2 ) Donald Tsang of Hong Kong has an annual salary of $515,300. 3 ) Barack Obama, President of the United States has an annual salary of $400,000. 4 ) Brian Cowen, Taoiseach of Ireland has an annual salary of $342,400. 5 ) Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France has an annual salary of $319,800. 6 ) Julia Gillard, Prime Minister of Australia has an annual salary of $315,800. 7 ) Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada has an annual salary of $309,800. 8 ) Jacob Zuma, President of South Africa has an annual salary of $305,800. 9 ) Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany has an annual salary of $303,800 10 ) David Cameron, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom has an annual salary of $300,400.
So he's paid more than the leaders of the three largest economies in the EU despite almost bankrupting the country and overseeing the largest deficit in the EU. A deficit that was created under his watch. Add in expenses, pension entitlements, allowances and the ministerial car with two full time Garda drivers and you could conservatively double that take home figure. His pain is all too obvious to see!
His predecessor Bertie Ahern is also generously catered for with numerous salaries, extra allowances, expenses, pensions, directorships, fully expensed state car for life and Garda drivers. He is still paid as a sitting TD to work on behalf of the people although he appears to spend his time enjoying a lucrative sideline as a conference speaker, journalist, author, conference speaker and TV presenter. He is reputed to enjoy the highest pension entitlements and allowances of any former head of state in Europe. All this while he still cannot produce a valid tax clearance certificate. The only pain felt by Bertie Ahern is that to his enormous ego as he realises that he will never become president!
There is an argument that if we did not pay politicians a good salary we wouldn't attract talented people to the jobs. What specific talent do these men possess? What are we actually paying this obscene amount of money for? The Mahon tribunal will deal with Bertie Ahern’s legacy in due course. Brian Cowen is an fantasist who continually denies responsibility for issues that happened under his watch. He blames anyone and everyone for this recession without ever acknowledging that he is paid his grossly inflated salary to take responsibility, be accountable, and to act decisively. By this yardstick he has failed abysmally. He is not worth the money. He is not worth any money. His record is one of repeated failure. In the real world he would and should have been fired long ago.
The actual amount paid in remuneration would be unimportant if we were getting real value for money. However we are not getting any value here. Brian Cowen oversaw and implemented the policies that drove this country into recession. He continued to deny that a problem existed until he could no longer hide from the truth. Remember the sound economic fundamentals? Now he is overseeing the implementation of some of the worst economic decisions in Irish history which will I believe cripple this country economically for years to come.
And for all this we pay him the fourth highest salary in the world. Plus expenses and allowances. Ireland truly is a wonderful country!
