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Updated 5.55pm
GOVERNMENT MINISTERS HAVE agreed they will not take a €4,000 pay hike next year.
The pay increase – or pay restoration – under the Haddington Road Agreement for public servants, would see Cabinet ministers receive €4,000 a year for the next three years and TDs getting €5,000 over the next two years.
Today, Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe formally asked his Cabinet colleagues to forego their pay restoration.
It is understood that the decision to waive the pay raise was unanimous.
Speaking to the media today, Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe all public office holders at ministerial and minister of state level will forfeit the pay restoration.
The last Taoiseach was paid €275,000, this Taoiseach is paid approximately €175,000. Those changes were needed, they were right, they were proper because of the journey the country had went through and I also believe approach in which this government is taking in relation to political pay is the right one too, as while we have a country that is recovering, it is not a country that has yet recovered.
The unaffordable wage increase of tomorrow is the savage wage cut of the day afterwards. We don’t want to go down that route.
In relation to the payment of TDs, he said he continues to believe that the best path forward for these payments is for them to be anchored with payments to principal officers, which is a certain highband of civil servant worker.
If we don’t use that anchor we will end up back with politicians determining what other politicians are paid. That is not the right way to deal with an issue as sensitive as politicians’ pay.
He said whether TDs want to accept the wage increase “is a matter for them”.
All eyes on the remaining TDs
Eyes now turn to TDs as to whether they will also turn down the wage hike.
Last week, the Department for Public Expenditure would not comment on TDs’ pay increases when asked by TheJournal.ie, but the matter is expected to be the subject of forthcoming Dáil debates.
The pay rise for TDs has sparked controversy, due to a lack of clarity on a start date for the €5 to be added to social welfare payments.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Claire Byrne Live programme last night, Housing Minister Simon Coveney said he expected ministers to waive the increase, acknowledging it is an issue the public are concerned about.
“We need to make sure we are in tune with what the country is thinking,” he said.
However, he would not be drawn on what individual TDs should do.
I don’t want to to start putting individual TDs on the spot. Lots of people have different circumstance they are living in and people should make their own minds up.
Last week a number of TDs spoke out against the rise in pay for TDs, with the Minister of State Finian McGrath stating that TDs needed to “stop whinging” and forego the pay hike.
Those in the opposition benches have also criticised the increase.
In a statement to TheJournal.ie, Sinn Féin said it will be seeking to block the implementation of the pay increase in the Dáil.
We will be seeking the support of the entire opposition, including Fianna Fáil. We are opposed to increase.
Speaking on the RTÉ’s Late Debate last week, AAA-PBP TD Brid Smith could not confirm that her Dáil colleagues would not be taking the increase, stating that the party had yet to meet to discuss the issue.
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“Think of something pleasant so you appear sincere” OR be sincere.
You forgot to mention that Winston Churchill spent most of his life in an alcoholic haze. His famous “fight them on the beaches” speech sounds so belligerent because he was apparently 3 sheets to the wind . The nation thought that it was his fighting spirit that made him sound so resolute but in fact it was more probably the contents of a bottle of brandy that gave him that growling tone. The only thing he didn’t do was finish off his speech with “the fugging bashtrds, I’ll take ‘em all on!”.
…rewriting history there Brian, are we?
Ya churchy baby loved the sauce, some of his hardest and best decisions were made late at night with a brandy bottle. He said that he got more out of booze than booze ever got out of him.
The Dude, far from it. Churchill was a renowned drinker who had champagne for lunch and dinner followed by brandy and was rarely seen without a glass of whiskey by his side. He reputedly got sick as a young boy and his doctor advised him to drink sherry as a remedy only he neglected to mention how much and more importantly when to stop, This article http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/11371641/The-day-I-tried-to-match-Churchill-drink-for-drink.html lays out what Churchill drank during the day. It would make most people completely useless by tea time but to someone who had being drinking for years it would be achievable.
Another notable person who was an working alcoholic for most of their life and still achieved success is Ingvar Kampard, the founder of Ikea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingvar_Kamprad . He reckons that he became an alcoholic by drinking large amounts of vodka while doing deals with suppliers and customers in Poland as he grew the business. He reputedly drinks 2 bottles of vodka a day but dries out 3 times a year.
It didn’t stop him from becoming the greatest leader of the 20th century!
I never said it did. Although calling him the greatest leader of the 20th century may well be a matter for debate.
Keep your hands out of your pockets as you shake someone’s hand. Solid advice
Mono Official
And politicians take note, – keep your hands out of other people’s pockets when shaking their hands…
” 2. Reduce how quickly and often you nod. ” – Mary (headbangin’ to a ‘Whole lot of Rosie’.) Robinson take note.
‘Make people feel like they’re the most intelligent, impressive and fascinating person you’ve ever met’
So.
If you’re talking to some boring a**hole then you’re actually suppressing your rational intelligence and becoming a two faced duplicitous a**hole yourself in the process.
Great.
That really makes sense.
One sure fire way to become the least influential person in the world….
Tell people what you really think of them.
That is the most intelligent, impressive and fascinating thing I’ve ever heard. Please, Oran, do go on…
Is that you Oprah?
Oran what if bullies read this and thing, yes we can bully someone and use these techniques against the victim they are bullying? By spreading lies about the victim to justify the bullying as craic or as excuses for the bullying by controlling the reasons for it or getting others to join in on it because they are stupid or immature not to know the difference?
……
Keep on noticing this trend: Take a common sense subject, go over think the subject for years & then write a book about it.
No to FG/Lab/FF
So what is the alternative ?
A shower of misfits !
Careful what you wish for
Seeing as it’s about being a false leader.
Should we not ad.
1 Be corrupt and willing to take back handers.
2 Get wealthy corrupt backers behind you and be willing to forward their agenda no matter how vile it is.
3 Loose all respect and love for fellow humans including your own family.
…and use a teleprompter.
Johnneary
And hire 25 personal assistants and staff to tell him what to say, – but heaven forbid that he takes part in any live debate, in case he’s found out…
…I was referring to Hussein Obama
Amen Guys.
Practicing all of the things in the above article won’t produce a charismatic/good leader.
It may produce a bought out, false also-ran puppet pseudo leader, kleptocrat or crony capitalist.
‘Think of something pleasant and a photo of Oprah underneath..bad call
This is a joke but did you mean… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SOvZmVD1kQ
I use to get drunk and loved everybody then and I didn’t have a good time unless the other person had a good time as well.
How about stopping this nonsense and become truthful to yourselves and to others, liking or loving people is the best way to becoming charismatic. Anything else just makes you a liar to yourself and to others.
I do dislike this as it is a way to make people fake in other to get what THEY WANT and that is using people. Another name for people like this is sociopathic…
13. Get confident, stupid!
Wave your hands all over the place whilst talking
Is not meaning and believing what you say the most important thing not good acting.
You wha? “Think of something pleasant so you appear to be sincere.” Become an excellent listener by deliberately pausing and asking questions.” and “Combine your power with warmth to create a full, charismatic package.”
Congratulations, you are now becoming a sociopath?
A bad handshake is the worst, men or women it doesn’t matter a limp,weak n slithering handshake has just ruined anything else you try to say! Also don’t touch me anywhere else when you shake my hand, my hand your hand end of,no shoulders, no elbows, no mid arm,no mid waist just the hand thanks!
have your say