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FORMER TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern has claimed over €377,000 in expenses since leaving government – despite a generous pensions package and his continued allowances as a TD.
Figures released by the government to Labour backbencher Anne Ferris show that Ahern has received some €366,284 to employ secretarial assistants, who help him manage duties arising from his status as a former head of government.
In addition, he has claimed some €10,655 in mobile phone expenses between leaving office in mid-2008 and the end of August.
The payments were made under schemes introduced under his tenure to assist former taoisigh with the management of their duties.
Ahern’s payments are higher than those paid to three other former taoisigh who have been entitled to payments since the scheme began.
Since 2001, when payments for assistants began, Albert Reynolds has received €250,842 to pay for secretarial assistants; the late Dr Garret FitzGerald had received €230,466; and John Bruton took €156,442 for secretarial help.
Ahern’s phone expenses are also higher than those paid to each of the three – even though those expenses were paid, from 2005, to the same three former taoisigh.
Reynolds had claimed €7,234.93 in mobile phone expenses between 2005 and August 2011, while Fitzgerald had received €5,986.48 and Bruton had received €9,938.11.
Charles Haughey had received €91,719.19 for secretarial help between 2001 and his death in 2007, and had claimed €2,262.15 in phone and computer expenses since 2005.
Brian Cowen, meanwhile, has been paid €32,279 for secretarial assistance since leaving office in March, and has claimed €296.82 in phone expenses. He has also received computer equipment to the value of €1,440.
In total, around €1.16m has been paid to former taoisigh under the scheme since its introduction.
Ferris criticised the high amounts paid to the former heads of government, including those paid to John Bruton – whose expenses had been run up while he was the EU ambassador to the United States.
“Is the taxpayer expected to foot the bill for Bertie to help write his grand speeches on what a great leader he was? It is a disgrace and must end.
“Bertie Ahern appears to have gotten away scot free from any responsibility for the severe damage he has done this State and it is not right that he can use taxpayer’s money to write a legacy for himself that does not match his achievements.”
Ahern was still a TD until February 2011 – meaning he was entitled to employ a parliamentary assistant and a secretarial assist for his duties there – and would have received a TD’s salary worth around €98,000 until that time, on top of his pension as a former Taoisigh for over 10 years.
Former taoisigh are allowed to employ two secretarial assistants for five years after they leave office, and one assistant thereafter. Assistants are not permitted to assist with political or constituency work.
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I really hate Bertie Ahern – He stands for all that is wrong with Ireland – He is the poster boy for Fíanna Fáil failures and excess. He needs to be charged with treason as we all know the charges would stand and he needs to be put in prison.
Incredible though it may seem, there are only about 18 – 20 people directly responsible for the mess we’re in. They need to be made an example of… NOW. This country will not recover for years and years and years. They must be made to pay.
Alas that will never happen, nobody will ever be brought to justice, because there is no justice in this country anymore.
Fine Gael/Labour are up there with Fianna “FAIL”
They only look after themselves and justice will never prefail.
I can’t like this enough, we need to put these people on trial and shown they can’t get away with it. Perhaps we should insist that they live out their years in the care homes that received not enough State funding because they were too busy lining their own pockets while our health and social system went to despair.
SCUM SCUM SCUM
That about somes up the spineless gobshite in the above photo, which makes me sick to look.
I think what kills me is that although he is entitled to claim he doesnt have the decency and cop on to forego these payments in a time when the Irish people are suffering the most.
He’s completely destroyed any goodwill or respect the public had for him and his party and he looks like rubbing our faces in it by continuing to rape the taxpayers.
The greed is astonishing…
The only people that FF TD’s and Cllrs have more disdain for than the average voter is their own party members. The have bled their own party dry, ran it in to the ground, kicked out members that weren’t yes men and packed the cumann’s full of leeches, family and friends who are all in on the scam. They aren’t a political movement anymore, more like a freemasonry for corruption and theft.
Decent men like Sean Lemass, Sean Moylan etc etc must be spinning in their graves as the traitors who cash in on their names while opposing everything they ever stood for.
JC. I know lot of this would have been wages but does he really need that big a machine. This really is a disgrace.
We are closing hospitals, schools, Garda stations and losing SNAs etc for the likes of this?
Bertie Aherne, A Snake in the grass. Lived the high life through all the fake good times, and slithered away when he seen the train wreak coming, before the masses, then left others to try and pick up the pieces. Poster boy for the hardships of the real Irish People, who are suffering now!
I shook his hand once, six or eight years ago, if I had the chance again I’d probably bruise his balls with a good hard size 10 safety shoe.
all those ex-gov who have retired / been voted out and are under 65 (or should that be 67?) should be made to claim the dole (or GET A JOB – but who’d employ them really?) instead of these disgustingly high pensions.
Labour EX TD Anne Ferris should look at her own expenses and print them out for all to see .As for Bertie he is no different to Anne Ferris there both parasites .Anne if your reading this why don’t you go and let us see all the ex labour TD’s Senators MEP’s expenses it will run into millions.
Still bleeding the country and it’s taxpayers dry eh Bertie….SCUMBAG
He will never be put on trial… Because he would be convicted straight away, the public despise him…. Greedy lying tramp
Who ever is now signing these expenses off now, STOP or pay for them out of your own money. I am working (thank feck) hard and SKINT.
Stop paying these price pricks or you are the same. The people are speaking! STOP STOP STOP
Sam, the political class in Ireland are only interested in the people every 4 years or so. Otherwise they live in their own little bubble were the salaries and expenses they draw down are seen as adaquate and no more. As they keep telling us everybody is feeling the pain (except Enda’s 2 political advisers). More fool us for voting in these leaches of all parties.
Apologies Kerry for being so naive and you ARE correct, democracy my hole! Now to hide behind my hp couch from the TV licence man.
Is it not the Minister for expenditure who is signing off on these expenses??? my god and a woman refused cancer treatment because of the cost? beggers belief!!!! And the powers that be in Europe must be signing these expenses off too, don’t they see our budgets before the people do.????
The parasite is still sucking the lifeblood out of the country, it is an absolute disgrace that this venal leech is allowed to fleece the tax payer in this way. Also, for the other pre Ahern taoisigi to be still getting ‘secretarial’ and phone allowances after such a length of time out of office is a complete and utter joke! Theses payments should be stopped immediately, it is outrageous that the tax payer should be expected to pay for these people considering they have all walked away with big tax payer funded pensions and the proceeds of their time in office including their vast expenses. Only in Ireland would you see this kind of self serving greed and entitlement culture. Unbelievable!
In all fairness you see it all over the world. Plus we’re not the only country to sit back and take it, look at the Italians, Berlusconi has run riot over there and no-one can stop him.
That doesn’t make it OK. I showed up at a protest last year organised to happen outside Leinster House, in Eyre Square Galway and a couple of other locations. – 5 people showed in Galway and 21 or 22 in Dublin… We are a broken nation of broken people. It’s impossible to drum up support from people who are so down trodden and defeated. Thanks Bertie.
I never said it was ok, I was solely referring to your closing remark:
“Only in Ireland would you see this kind of self serving greed and entitlement culture”
and pointing out that we are not alone in having this attitude.
Paul it’s not because the Irish are broken people that no-one turns up at the protests, it’s because Irish people are too lazy, it’s easier to sit around complaining than to get onto the streets, everyone needs to put their marching boots where their mouths are and only then would you maybe see change. The politicians and others in power are laughing all the way to the bank, they know they will NEVER be held accountable, it’s embarrassing.
Super Kario, Ireland has a real issue when it come to holding people accountable for their actions, wether it’s the politicians, bankers, developers or the catholic church. The point I was making is that ‘only in Ireland’ would people like Ahern get away with it, the culture of the cute hoor, the entitlement mentality of the various nepotist clans who have run the country since independence is what i’m getting at. You are right of course it does go on in other countries but they are not my concern. Sadly Ireland has form when it comes to allowing gangsters to fleece the public purse, think Haughey, Ahern, Callelly, O’Donoghue, Healy-Rae’s, Cooper-Flynn and so on.
I’m sure we could have got a good sniper for a tenth of that.
If anyone feels like calling him, the number for his office in St. Lukes (publicly available by the way on http://bertieahernoffice.org/ ) is 018374129
I just phoned a moment ago to register my disgust.
I called but there was no secretary there to answer.
FF do Irony at an industrial scale.
Scum to the core I hope he rots in hell
The robbing bastard!!!!
Is it any wonder that Ahern had always a sneer on his face- he thought he was a great swindler-
“Ahern has received some €366,284 to employ secretarial assistants, who help him manage duties arising from his status as a former head of government”.
What duties?
Who are the secretarial assistants in question?
What assurance have we that the €366k went exclusively to pay them?
Is there any audit on the expenses?
The whole thing stinks to high heaven and until such time as there is a detailed explanation we can be forgiven for assuming that Ahern is just ripping off the Exchequer big time.
Good point! As this is tax payers money shouldn’t he be required to to keep a record of how that money was allocated. This is after all public money and in the public interest to ensure he’s not getting up to his old corrupting tricks. His ‘secretaries’ (the ones the tax payer is paying for) should be earning their money by keeping such records so, lets see the figures. As the presidential candidates have been forced into showing us their payments it’s time that the likes of Ahern and the others ex Taoisigh showed us how they spent the tax payers money, who was paid for what? what ‘duties’ were performed and what was the cost of these ‘duties’ to the tax payer, how much of the phone related costs were in relation to public duties and were any of them for personal use or business related use which were for financial gain to the individual involved. There should be scrupulous records kept of every penny these people spend as it is not their money it is public money and they should be able to account for and show how that money was spent. Over to you journalists on this because I can be pretty sure that these details will NOT be offered up by any of the individuals involved and i’d bet my last penny on it that Ahern won’t be keen to see his expenses probed. Well done Anne Ferris now push him on HOW the money was spent please!
He’s a walking, living advertisement why Fianna Fail should NEVER be voted for ever again!
I think there should be an investigation done as to what the secretarial assistance entailed, if part of their work was to do with his speeches that earned him an extra personal wage, then he should be charged.
And I have no doubt they were used for that purpose … What else would they have to do?
Sicking
And Fianna Fail are seeking a come back !
€10k on mobile phone bills in just a few years? Sounds like Mr. Aherne is phoning up a few lovely girls
There should be one secratary for all of them, they’re hardly that damn busy
Exactly. What the hell are they doing ? He has no shame.
Considering the amount of boards he sits on and those related payments surely he can afford to finance his own activities?
As for running an investigation into minister affairs, who would do that exactly? Other ministers? Other ministerial departments? Can you see them shopping their own? I certainly can’t. We don’t need any more Quangos to investigate the current ones, we don’t need any more money being thrown and wasted at these issues, we need reform…but who the hell in the government is going to reform the government?
How is it the Troika don’t insist these payments are stopped, they have told our government what taxes to impose on the people.There can only be one explanation for that!!
Its predictable that the greedy pig would act in this way , what is truly disgusting is that the the delusional fool is still entitled to so , WTF would a disgraaced ex taoiseach be allowed to have a private sec . Please Bertie , Charlie, Biffo,Seanie , quinn, leave the country you so badly treated we are sick of looking at you
If you look up the words ‘shameless” and “Shyster” in the dictionary, do you see Bertie’s photo? A forensic audit of his expenses should be published. A fiver says his “secretarial assistant” typed that execrable autobiography. Surely that’s beyond the remit? His pension is generous enough to negate the need for further expenses. You are a sponger, Bertie. Own the shame, you despicable git.
Its endempic folks , just reading todays Limerick Chronicle and FG Councillor claimed for travel expenses on car he said was in for repair. He also calimed €268 in expenses for a confernce 44 miles away form limerick, now that value for money ! A message need to be sent out . Enda have this guy thwon out of the Party , he should be immeditley banned from holding any publc office .
i cant believe people r disliking these comments he`s a scumbag
Sickening stuff really and quite sad. Do these politicians not realise that by lining their own pockets with these outrageous claims they are taking out of the same pot that is used to run our hospitals and pay our nurses and doctors. There are people in their 70s, 80s and 90s lying on trollies, in hospital corridors upset and scared because wards have been closed due to cuts. These heartless politicians have actual blood on their hands and they care not one bit. They were voted in firstly by their own community and then by the rest of the country to a position of trust and this is what they do with that trust. I don’t understand how the current government tells everyone else that we now live in different economic times than 4-5 years ago yet don’t put a stop to these outrageous payments. I have no doubt that there are a multitude of other payments the public don’t know about. Shame on them all.
Reading articles like this drives me into such a rage that I can hardly bear it. I wish we could lock him up, but I’d be loathe to pay for his upkeep.
Still, it’d probably be a fraction of what he has swindled out of us after decades in politics.
A complete and utter traitor to Eire.
I bet he wishes that he was like Gay Mitchell and did not have to publish his expenses. Kind of like Roddy Molloy, he is entitled to it I suppose.
I would say I am gobsmacked but nowadays, this appears to the “norm”, it makes me sick to the stomach reading articles like this! The gov simply must cut out all excessive expenses like this BEFORE hitting us working folk hard again in the upcoming budget!
They are not going to major change these systems – they are being exploited by their own too – and they know this.
They might even be thinking of themselves further down the line too!
They will window-dress all they like and change minor stiff to placate the masses but as regards the whole structure – nope – not a hope in hell of the current system being thrown out and replaced by one that is totally transparent and accountable to the law and public.
…And thats the sad truth!
Actually, what annoys me most is how abnormal Ahern’s claims are compared to the others. On average he claimed €61K per secretary per year, compared to €23K (Fitzgerald), €25K (Reynolds) and €14K (Bruton) (Cowen is at €32K, but that’s not a reliable average as it’s only based on 6 months since March). On phones, he spent an average of €3.5K a year, more than €0.9K (Fitzgerald), €1.2K (Reynolds) or €1.7 (Bruton) (Cowen averages at €1.4K, but with the same caveat as before). So Ahern has claimed on average over double what each of the others claimed (and over quadruple what Bruton claimed per secretary per year).
It is frustrating that Ahern cannot be held to account for this kind of discrepancy. Is he knowingly exploiting a system he helped set up? The figures released by the government to Anne Ferris suggest he is.
scumbag u make me sick
If he’s been aloud claim this I would love to know what the ceiling of allowable expenses is!
Hold on a minute!
These, scumbags, cute hoors, crooks, swindlers etc. of all parties were elected to Local Government and Parliament by the people of Ireland. Fianna Fail were elected when last in power by – to quote from Allen Dukes – ‘the breakfast roll man’. Thanks ‘breakfast roll man’ for electing these clowns to finish the mess they had worked on so well and for so long in government! My point is that when Fianna Fail were mopping up the last of the slop from the bucket the electorate of Ireland chose to elect them one last time to gather what might be left from their feverish swilling. By the time the electorate saw sense and booted them out the swill bucket was below empty.
All we have left is the sound of their greedy belches ringing in our ears as we beg Europe to bail us out.
We done it to ourselves.
You are so right John, Bertie was a hero when people had money in their pockets, he was the same person then as he is now, and no-one complained.
That’s exactly right Aine. He was trotting in and out of tribunals grinning from ear to ear, hanging his own personal assistant out to dry, telling lies and no one gave a hoot.
Forget any idea that this milking will cease. Enda and co are looking forward to the time when they can continue. We live in a place where someone can spend 30 or more years away from their teaching post and still get a teachers pension. Forget any prospects of reform. People who milk the system and dodge taxes are only continuing in the grand milking traditions established by the elite.
This is why martin mcg is appearing to be doing so well in the polls, if they all took just above the arv ind wage we wouldn’t have this problem, but with the likes of bertie its every man for himself and how much and I take the taxpayer for. I do not agree with martin mcg past but at least he wouldn’t screw the irish for every cent he can get, its more than what can be said for the crowd running the country and the last lot that got voted out
The best part of all thuis, is that half of the people on here will now probably end up in court for libel, or threatening behaviour…. while FG/Labour can support the total lies campaign against McGuinness in the presidential election…. all the while, not one single banker has been jailed yet, not one former government official or minister … and someone wrote a comment up above
” Limerick Chronicle and FG Councillor claimed for travel expenses on car he said was in for repair. He also calimed €268 in expenses for a confernce 44 miles away form limerick, now that value for money ! A message need to be sent out .”
We have a chance in this election to send our protest vote in this election… Do not vote for the establishment, or the status quo , because at the end of the day, that is what you will get if you do stay with the same.
‘ Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results’.
Albert Einstein
Sick to death of TD’s past and present feathering their own nests , leeches on the people of this country the lot of them.
You think he could afford an iphone with those expenses!
And the saga goes on & on and on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Unbelievable!
Bertie sure is a loveable rogue!
No – he’s not.
…And only blind idiots think he’s loveable.
People have been saying that for years but I never listened to it. He was, and still is, a f*cking crook.
How the fuck is that possible?
10,000 !!! Who the f*cks he ringing! He’s no friends!
surely to god there must be a way to stem this guy’s greed? what the hell is the government doing with these people? do we have a government that can say ‘enough is enough.’
are we to sit by the sidelines and read this sort of stuff on a daily basis? thats what we do, day after day…sutherland and now this geezer.
This government wont do a bloody thing, they are all on the same gravy train …. Use your vote……
Aaaaaarrrrgh!
FUCKN SCU?BAG
€61 K per year for Berties Secretary??????????? Can I please have one of these jobs!!
wonder how much of that €61k does the secretary actually get………
obviosly no recruitment moratorium in place here!
Really phone expenses, have these people never heard of Skype, Viber, Whatsap Sipdroid, I could go on. Phone calls are now free.
The poltiions and X Polititions are bleeding us honest taxpayers dry.
Sure is that not what crooks do..So why any suprise
i reckon that glanbia should take over the running of the dail after all there used to running milking parlours! this man is a disgrace, he has lied,cheated and swindled his way to a big fat pension and a life of luxury on the backs of the irish people, it’s high time all these ‘expenses’ payout’s were audited and verified and limited to 50k at most, then and only then could the political classes preach about cutting back on spending . i am sending an e.mail to dirty berte telling him that he is no better than a crook and if he wants to sue me then tough luck because i have nothing left to give,thanks to him and his golden circle. you and your cronies have sold this country down the swannie, you are an absolute disgrace and should be stripped of your pension ,expence account and all the other perk’s that go with it.
T
That’s â
Why should he not take advantage of it the only ones that can stop him is his own and sure all the rats are under the same Anorak
Pure dirt bird
Only got ourselves to blame! Everyone can shout as loud as you want but nothing will change….. not until the good people of this country take to the streets as one and hold these parasites to account. The French would have heads on spikes! But we…..we’re a soft and complying nation with no sense of moral obligation to stand and be counted, ‘sure someone else will do it’! I’m tired and fed up with this crap, where’s that Irish pride and fight that we so adamantly sing about…… Bollox!
Not till we hold them accountable can we truly be proud!
Absolute joke and it’s on the taxpayers.
Absolutely scandalous shouldn’t be allowed to claim anything any of them big fat pension is enough what a sick country we are
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