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Updated: 1.32 am
EARLY IN DECEMBER, we asked if you had any nagging questions remaining from 2016, about claims or facts or statistics you heard again and again over the course of the past 12 months.
We were inundated with excellent suggestions from readers, and picked out the very best ones.
For the third installment, we’re looking at the pay of Irish politicians compared to their counterparts in other countries.
We’ve had several queries about this subject over the past year or so, including one related to politicians’ pay, earlier this month.
For this fact check, we’ve researched the basic salaries of TDs and their counterparts throughout the EU, as well as some heads of government.
Calculating politicians’ pay is fiendishly complicated, with some countries applying bonuses indexed to years of service, as well as extra allowances for travel, accommodation and administrative support.
Similarly, countries have various different pension arrangements for their parliamentarians and senior office holders, and in some cases, they are not made public.
Likewise, tax is levied based on an individual’s overall income, including income not related to their political office, so several countries cannot disclose what a politician earns after tax.
For these reasons, and for the sake of simplicity, we’re presenting the basic, gross (pre-tax) salary of members of the lower or most prominent house of parliament throughout the EU.
(Where a country has only one house of parliament, known as a “unicameral” system, we’ve included figures for these members here).
It’s important to note that these are only the basic salaries. In most parliaments, members can and do earn above this amount, by holding certain positions (speakerships, leadership of political groupings, ministerial office, and so on).
Members of Parliament
As you can see, members of the lower house of the Irish parliament (TDs), rank 7th out of 28 EU countries, when it comes to their basic, pre-tax salary.
The top three in Europe all have a gross annual salary of more than €100,000: members of Italy’s Camera dei Deputati (Chamber of Deputies), with €125,220; members of Austria’s Nationalrat (National Council), with €121,608; and members of the German Bundestag (Federal Diet), with €108,984.
The basic annual salary of a TD (€87,258) places Dáil Éireann between the UK House of Commons (£74,962 or €88,725, based on an early December exchange rate) and the Belgian Kamer van Volksvertegenwoordigers (Chamber of Representatives), with a basic salary of €86,064.
The EU parliaments with the lowest basic salaries are: Romania with €14,345 for members of the Camera Deputaţilor (Chamber of Deputies); and Bulgaria with €18,314 for members of the unicameral Naradno Sabranie (National Assembly).
However, it must be stressed once again that these figures are basic salaries only, with many members earning above this level.
To get a truer sense of how much politicians really make, though, we need to put these amounts in the context of each country’s broader economy, and link them to the average person’s income.
There are several ways to to do this, but the only source that provides relevant, uniform, pre-tax data for all 28 EU member states is the World Bank.
We’ve taken the GNI (Gross National Income) per person for each country in 2015, the most recent year available, which allows us to compare the salaries of politicians to the average resident of their country.
The relatively high salary of Italian MPs is set in even starker contrast here, when you see that GNI per capita in Italy is more than four times less – at €29,599.
Meanwhile Greek MPs, although they earn less than half their Italian counterparts, rank second by this measure, their €61,620 basic salary more than three times higher than GNI per person in Greece, which is €18,331.
When salaries are put in this context, TDs rank 19th out of 28, earning 1.84 times Ireland’s GNI per capita, which was €47,434 in 2015.
Heads of Government
We were able to obtain official, reliable figures for 20 out of 28 EU member states. Here they are, ranked according to the ratio between the annual basic salary of each Head of Government (usually Prime Minister) and GNI per person.
As you can see, German Chancellor Angela Merkel tops the table among these 20 EU heads of government, with a basic pre-tax salary of €232,396 as Chancellor and €94,559 as a member of the Bundestag – a combined salary of €326,955.
This constitutes almost 8 times Germany’s GNI per capita.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny ranks fourth out of these 20 heads of government. His combined TD and Taoiseach’s salary of €185,350 places him between Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen (€199,407) and Prime Minister Xavier Bettel of Luxembourg (€182,770).
However, Bettel’s basic salary is only 2.63 times greater than Luxembourg’s GNI per capita of €69,464.
By comparison with GNI per person, Enda Kenny’s salary places him right in the middle of the rankings, earning 3.91 times the Irish average.
The five heads of government with the lowest basic salaries all come from the post-2004 accession states in Eastern Europe: Bulgaria, Slovakia, Latvia, Lithuania and Croatia.
Conclusion
Irish TDs and our Head of Government all have relatively high basic salaries (members of Dáil Éireann rank 7th in the EU, and Taoiseach Enda Kenny ranks 4th out of 20 EU countries).
However, when these amounts are compared to the average resident (using GNI per capita as a proxy), the pay of Ireland’s most prominent national political officials is far from outrageous, at least by comparison with elsewhere in the EU.
This ratio places our TDs’ salaries 19th out of 28 countries, in the bottom half, and Enda Kenny’s basic salary ranks 10th out of 20.
To download a spreadsheet containing all the relevant data, click here.
Correction: Previously, the first two charts above described data as relating to the salaries of “upper house” members of parliament. In fact, the data related to the salaries of lower house members of parliament, as was made clear in the body of the article itself.
TheJournal.ie’s FactCheck is a signatory to the International Fact-Checking Network’s Code of Principles. You can read it here.
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Pensions should be calculated over a service to the state if 40 years and only payable at age 65. So if you serve as a TD for 8 years you get 1/5 of a pension at age 65, and pro rata. No pensions paid before age 65 and if you are in office after 65 then you do not receive pension until you leave office. No more scenarios of former ministers getting pensions while serving as opposition TD’s.
This is now the case. No pensions until 65 for current politicians.
I disagree. Politicians and all public servants alike should pay into their own pension fund for retirement just like most private sector workers. It is abhorrent to think private sector workers are paying current taxes to pay for public sector pensions and at the same time have to also save for their own. Everyone should have the same system.
Reg..no “pensions until 65″ how many can they collect then..
@ iohanx totally agree..but the difference is the public sector can hold the private sector to ransom..
Here’s a question for The Journal perhaps? How many Public Servants also have private PRSA / AVC funds on the side and use up to 40% tax relief depending on age, plus have a public sector pension coming to them at retirement?
Public service pensioners are disqualified from the standard pension, worth €12k pa. However, bankers got 75% salary PLUS 12k state pension.
@Pat, despite that, public servants can effectively double down on pensions using pension tax relief. An absolute amazing perk that never appears to be discussed or accounted for. Or understood in many cases by the reporting media.
Hmm….when GDP is taken into account I’d saycwe top the list. Also our expenses regime is way beyond Eu norms don’t even start about pensions
@gregory. Interesting. Any chance of a link to your claim that our expenses are more generous, or did you just make it up because it “sounded” correct?
I was a public service employee and always had a hefty deduction from my pay toward pension….The miserable pension I now receive is a small top up …….. But nothing you could live the high life on…….It helps me exist…….. There is a false illusion bandied around by the media on the pension issue
Public servants do pay into their pension fund.
@Pat Redmond: No they are not, pre 1995 PS pensioners did not make a Class A PRSI contribution, they have no entitlement to the state pension, their pension is 50% of the salary they retired on.
Post 1995 are entitled to 50% of their salary – which includes the state pension.
@Dermot Cronin: You are getting a small top up that the rest of us will not entitled.
Why don’t you all work in public sector then if the pay was so great and pensions are so amazing? Its not exactly hard to get an admin grade 1 job starting on 20k working for 45 years and finishing up on 42k? Then living the dream which a pension top up thats been deducted from your salary after all your kids have grown up. You are all delusional. Go look at the stats, 80% of public sector workers are earning between 12 and 65k. Not exactly driving around in beamers and mercs. Private sector workers salaries are higher. Simple fact.
…then when they get their AVC pension they are taxed at 40%, plus PRSI plus USC. Worse still if they cash in the AVC everything is subject to the above taxes. Even if the pensioner prudently decided not to cash in the AVC government forces him/her to cash in 5% of it per year when the pensioner reaches sixty in order to grab the above mentioned taxes. The whole AVC thing is just an elaborate government sponsored scam in cahoots with a corrupt ridden insurance “industry”.
A huge chunk is taken off me in the form of the pension levy. I have no choice in this since I started working as a public servant since age of 24. When I retire, which will probably be raised to 70, I should get a pension that I payed for. Private sector jobs should be made pay into a scheme as soon as they start working then they can complain.
I have no problem with politicians getting paid a decent salary but in Ireland it’s beyond a joke at this stage. Expenses and advisors should be taken out of their own salaries. There is a culture of abuse by most politicians and dont even get me started on pensions grr grr grr!
Good article. A deeper analysis with average expenses paid would also be useful. Better still a comparison on the no of TD’s against population would be interesting too. I think our no is far too high for our population. 100 would be eneough.
Ideally adding purchasing power parity to this (how far each euro goes) would add an interesting dimension & I would have approached it with this instead of GNI.
You’ve obviously not lived in Europe if you think Irish purchasing power lower ?
I think Bulgaria, Romania & Malta would be in the middle of the pack w PPP and Irish TDs ranked lower – bottom third – Germans would be way out as euro goes further and they are well paid.
Simples.
I’d love to see a Backhander Bar Chart.
Italy would still be the runaway leader
I’m sure they could give em a run for their money, shit Ireland may beat em & become champions of Europe in a competition that ain’t the song contest
Excellent as always.
Wonder how the expenses regime, which in Ireland seems quite generous would affect the figures.
Anyway.
Thanks.
Fiddling expenses is rampant and must be stopped.when expenses doubles your salary,it’s very questionable.
And you base your claim on what facts?
Two words ……….Micheal Lowry
or Fred Forsy jnr.
or my personal favourite of the year Hugh McElvaney, he even got his own video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DQL11dFVOc
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/fintan-o-toole-why-the-irish-vote-for-corruption-1.2463345
It the expenses and the blatant corruption that turn most off politicians.
Fred Forsey would have got bugger all as a member of Dungarvan Town Council. And he wasn’t even a member of Waterford county council, the authority that granted the planning permission. And the guy that was supposed to have bribed him was found not guilty of corruption.
I just dont think they provide a service that justifies the level of pay they recieve. Nothing ever seems to get sorted in this country and all they do is pay us lip service
Bunch of w**kbags the lot of them
Would like to see a comparison of pensions. In Ireland former politicians and judges can earn a lot more in retirement than they did in their time working in that position. They also get to retire much earlier than the average Joe.
@The Guru: True, its relevant to this article, maybe The Journal will fact check this also. It’s also what attracts many of the cads to the “business” of politics.
@Lazlo Saint Pierre:
Not only politicians,,,people have been coming here from other EU and Non-EU countries and working for ten years and qualifying for A FULL contrib pension. I like many others have been screwed by our own Government by the fact that our pension is calculated on/from the date when I received my first NI Stamp, that is when I was 16. It’s a joke!
Calculating how much politicians get paid is made very complicated for a very good reason.
This factcheck only covers salarys. Its the add-on fees, expenses and pensions is where they make their fortune, and Ministers get massive deductions if they buy a house in Dublin.
Add in all the various committees they’re paying themselves extra for (something like 15k, extra pay for party whips, party leaders taking an extra salary from the party expenses fund (something like 40k).
Anyhow, none of them are at risk of going broke any time soon (except Wallace), despite the fact that many people have gone broke because of the horrendous mistakes they’ve made.
The Irish obsession with the remuneration of politicians and public figures is blinkering us from other more important issues.
@Bryan Yelahw: Yeah okay, Bryan. Vested interest?
No personal vested interest Beachmaster.
Most don’t even bother showing up for work.
Considering that this budge of halfwit drove us into the hands of the imf and effectively can’t take any decision no matter how sensible that may jeopardise there chances in the next election. They don’t deserve half of what they get.
People lose the run of themselves when talking about TDs salaries.. I certainly wouldn’t give up my job to take up a post that would pay €90k and year and only last for a maximum of 5 years. I just wouldn’t swap the security I have with that level of insecurity.. I would also point out to those that go on about TDs salaries, that at the time of the crash there were 1,200 within the education system in Ireland that earned over £100k a year..
@Stephen – what security do you have that’s so good…? And don’t forget public sector persons get leave to be a TD, so there is no risk, to them…
That 90k is straight into there arse pocket as the expenses oddly enough not included here are so generous..I mean a Dublin based td gets 15,000 just to turn up 3 days a week in the dail..and that’s before the unvouched allowances kick in..the average td claim is 70 k per annum which brings the 90 up quite nicely do ya think
For newly elected TD the pension is not actually that great.. A single
-term TD would find living on the resultant pension a bit if a struggle with additional income.
90k “straight into pocket”. Far from it. They pay tax (and lots of it) like everybody else and most TDs are expected to give some of their salaries to the Party. We all know what SF and others on the left claim their TDs live on, however even TD in FG and FG pay about 5k to the Party.. Why wouldn’t they get expenses. I get expenses as a civil servant and they are used to off-set costs I incur in doing my job… The pay and remuneration package TDs get is entirely appropriate in my opinion. I just think TD are the subject to so much ill-informed comment. Like, do people really believe that when the Dail is not sitting over holidays periods, at Christmas and Easter especially, that TDs have that time off??? People need to get real and understand what the job entails.
John .. you refer to teachers.. however nearly all Civil Servants are banned from running for public office (national) in order to maintain its neutrality. Most Civil Servants if they wise to run in national elections will have to resign their positions. Not only that, but civil Servant are not permitted to lobby or canvass on behalf of somebody running in a General or European election. The rules are not as strict for local elections.
It’s just 1 massive gravy train for these blood suckers .. total reform is needed pay cuts across the board they live in cookoo land
Should be voluntary, to show they do it for the love of their country and not their wallet.
In which case it’s all rich people or people beholden to rich people like in the U.K. at the end of the 19th century. Yay
Just have wealthy people in power, we’ll see how that works out in the US of A in the next 4years.
Well done The Journal for taking the time to research this article. We should have the same comparing teachers and guards salaries with their European counterparts.
There salary should be the same as the Romanian politicians
That’s less than the dole, don’t see too many people running for election here if that was the case.
Worth every penny
Didn’t callely go to jail for fiddling his expenses. right on
My arse they are !!!!
Since when is our Gross National Income circa €47000???
Horrible job can be fired after 5 years Have to go to loads of funerals fill up passport forms pension forms Have clinics where you have to listen to endless sad stories On top of that no real power if you are backbencher or in opposition party Far too many TD’S 100 would be enough with say 500 councilors
@whoswho you do realise its “per capita” and understand what that means ?
@Bogantity Please explain?
This ain’t going to be a popular article on these comment boards. Just waiting for Wally Mooney to have a good copy and paste response to prove you wrong.
Anyway with the AAA/PBP/XYZ and the Shinners only drawing the average industrial wage yada yada yada the averages are skewed.
They still get paid the full salary and expenses, if they want to spend it on pet projects, party funding, etc. That’s their own business, just don’t make them out to be heroes.
The Romanian politician aren’t on great money, no wonder there all begging over here
I think the GNI per person figure is a bit misleading as it is calculated based on gross national income rather than an actual average industrial wage. We all know that our GNI is one of those leprechaun economics figures.
If instead you take the 2014 annual average salary based on Eurostat figures and then use that as a base for your ratio the numbers look a little different (note that where Eurostat figures were not readily available, the country has been omitted)
Here is the ranking by ratio:
Germany – 7.12
Czech Republic – 6.92
Poland – 6.56
Hungary – 5.96
—–
Ireland – 5.37
—–
Estonia – 5.11
France – 4.73
Sweden – 4.46
Slovakia – 4.11
Italy – 3.77
Denmark – 3.74
Luxembourg – 3.35
United Kingdom – 3.28
Netherlands – 3.22
Finland – 3.13
Spain – 3.08
As you can see from that, we end up quite a bit higher on the list. I think these rankings are a little bit more in keeping with the actuality of the situation – or at least, it shows that our perceptions are not as far off as we are lead to believe.
@Alexander of Dublin: **** sorry, meant to say that these numbers are for HEAD OF STATE versus the EUROSTAT average salary ****
I’m surprised. I thought we paid our politicans far more than any other European country.
Per population they probably are !
Revolution sack them all
It’s an awful job. That’s terrible pay for the amount of crap they have to deal with and people who hate them for no reason.
@Graham Carrick: Awful alright, how on earth can they survive on such a “pitiful” income.
Yup Ireland a jokr again
Polish parliamentarians earn less than a polish plumber would expect to make here in a lot less time, no wonder they keep coming, LoL!
…does “woordigers” mean gold diggers!!!!!!!
have your say