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FINANCE MINISTER PASCHAL Donohoe has said he understands people’s anger at a government decision to increase the salary of a “super junior” minister in Cabinet by more than €16,000.
Donohoe said he accepts it has caused “great annoyance and anger” but he also defended the controversial decision.
Two junior ministers or ministers of state are entitled to receive an annual allowance of €16,888 on top of their €124,439 salary.
The current government has three super junior ministers – minister of state for climate and transport Hildegarde Naughton, government chief whip Jack Chambers and minister of state for agriculture Pippa Hackett.
Donohoe said the decision to top up their earnings was to ensure that ministers of state who are carrying out the same work are paid the same.
“I can absolutely understand the anger that this is causing for some. I’d also make the point that we’re doing that in the week in which we announced a €5 billion stimulus plan for the economy, in which we extended the wage subsidy scheme into next year, and we made the changes to the pandemic unemployment payment over a very long time period,” he told Newstalk.
“We were dealing with a specific matter. We have a number of ministers of state around the Cabinet table that were being paid differently and we were looking to get to a point that if they were doing the same work they were paid the same.
But all that being said, I do accept that this is causing a great annoyance and anger for some, but I would ask them to just to place this in the context of a huge, huge variety of different measures that we announced last week that are all about getting people back to work and all about growing incomes again.
“The kind of package that we announced last week is the largest package of its kind in the history of our country and it is all about putting in place a response back to the effects of this terrible disease.”
The decision has been widely criticised, with Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty saying it is unfair to frontline workers who will receive no pay increase.
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Justice served
@Greg Ward: should extent the same level of rigor to all murders.. some dont seem to get same level of intensity. Condolences to the family of Adrian
@Pat Kelly:
@Pat Kelly: How do you know what effort goes into other murder investigations?
Thoughts with Adrian’s wife, children and family today.
It won’t bring Adrian back or ease the pain of his loved ones, but it’s good to know that those responsible for that pain will suffer too. They won’t suffer enough but it’ll have to do.
I hope he serves every second of the sentence.
My thoughts are with Adrian Donohoe’s family.
@Michael Clinton: He will serve every day
A capital offence is 40 years without remission.
Great outcome . Justice at all for the family
End of part one…now for the rest of them.
Thinking of Caroline and her family today and all there Garda colleagues..R.I.P. Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe
Det Garda Adrian O’Donoghue was a true hero of our state, congratulations to An Garda Siochanna for a successful prosecution and their dogged persistence seeking justice for his family.
Proper Order. It should be life without the chance of parole
@Jim Beatty: It is a Life Sentence. The 40 Years just mean that he must serve 40 years before being considered for Parole. He will be 69 before he is entitled to his first Parole hearing. So going by normal standards will likely be in his 70′s before Parole would be granted.
@Mick.: and during his 40 years in jail, he will have lost his entire Middle years and will be institutionalised. I heard somewhere that when a person spends more than 20 years in jail, their entire mental balance changes too. So even if he gets out in his mid 70s, he won’t know how to react and survive in that new world of the 2060s or 70s. So in essence, he won’t be able to leave jail, even if he’s allowed.
@Mick.: its 30 with remission….
@Mick.: its 30 with remission…
God love all families involved in this
@Liam Mc Meel: True ,victims everywhere.
Taking a Life like that, he will be a very old man, when he is released if he ever gets released.
He would be out now if he surrendered on an armed robbery charge… But he chose to Kill a member of Gardai… that 40 year term is there to deter, not the brightest Spark now is he?
Also, I agree with an earlier post bring in mandatory 30 year minimum for all Life sentences… personally I couldn’t live with myself. You only live once, Life is precious.
Only 7 grand he would have got out of the robbery to divvy with his accomplices. What a tool.
The murder of Adrian Donohoe was and must be condemned..In stating that any update on the missing millions that disappeared in Templemore or the missing mobile phones and laptops of Noreen O’Sullivan..
@Donal Desmond: to make comments like that on a day like today is beneath contempt.
@Joe Bloggs: correct Joe,but vermin will be vermin.
All lives matter and all murders should be investigated with exactly the same vigor
@David Saunders: who says that they’re not?
May he rest in peace
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