MEP Kathy Sinnott takes pay cut

JP Liz · 05-02-2009 12:42pm #1

Source Irish Times

Independent MEP Kathy Sinnott has said she will take a 20 per cent pay cut and has written to all Irish MEPs, TDs and Senators asking them to do the same.
She has urged them to join her outside the front gates of Dáil Éireann at noon next Tuesday, when she will instruct the Office of the Houses of the Oireachtas to reduce her salary.
Irish MEPs’ wages are paid by the Oireachtas at the same rate as TDs and Senators (€7,791 a month for 2008), while expenses and staff costs are covered by the European Parliament, according to a spokeswoman for the European Parliament office in Ireland.
After the upcoming European elections in June, a new statute will come into force and most MEPs will be paid by the European Parliament at a standard rate of €7,339.
Ms Sinnott said: “This month so many people are being made unemployed, they are taking 100 per cent pay cuts. I’m not looking for personal glory.”
A move by MEPs, TDs and Senators to surrender a fifth of their salaries could “hopefully take pressure off lower paid public servants” and pressure senior private executives “to catch the bug”.
In her letter, Ms Sinnott wrote: “We all know that there are difficult times ahead and I truly believe that the only way to tackle these successfully is to put ‘politicking’ and political manoeuvring aside.”

well done Kathy its a start

guinnessdrinker · 05-02-2009 1:33pm

Fair play. I hope some other MEP's, TD's and Senators take her lead.

Do we really nead the Seanad though? How much would the state save from abolishing it altogether I wonder?