A former Dublin Green TD who said the Government was “p***ing on” the poor by pocketing pay hikes has himself got more than €160,000 in pension payments in eight years.
Paul Gogarty is now looking to get back on the political gravy train and return to the Dail as he is running in the upcoming Dublin Mid West by-election this Friday.
The 50-year-old protested loudly in the chamber during his elected years from 2002 to 2011, about the lavish pay of politicians alongside him.
He was criticised for using unparliamentary language when he slammed a proposed 13% boost in TDs’ salaries in 2002 as “urinating on the less well-off”.
He then went further a couple of years later when he said he thought he had been “too soft” in his comments in the first place and “people were being p***ed on” by the Government.
But since leaving the Dail after he lost his seat in 2011, Mr Gogarty has been building up a nice little nest egg in Oireachtas pension payments.
His benefits began flowing in 2014, official Oireachtas documents seen by Dublin Live state.
That year he got a huge pension lump sum – tax free – of €59,505.48 in respect of just over eight years’ service as a deputy for the Green Party.
And Mr Gogarty confirmed to Dublin Live last night he has been collecting €17,000-a-year since 2014 in generous pension payments too.
When asked to confirm if he also received the €60,000 lump sum, he added: “Yes, that would have been the case for all TDs with similar time periods in 2011.”
The pension cash is paid every year despite the fact Mr Gogarty is only 50.
This is because he qualified for his before the rules changed and was able to claim the huge pot and ongoing annual payments.
If he gets back into the Dail he will have to give up the pension he has been getting every year since the age of 45.
However, a spokeswoman for the Houses of the Oireachtas confirmed it does not have any powers to claw back anything already paid, including the giant €60,000 tax-free lump sum.
Mr Gogarty was re-elected as a politician when he won a seat on South Dublin City Council in 2014, which now acts as the springboard for his jump at national politics again.
He still boasts about his campaigning against high political pay.
His website currently reads: “Even when times were good during the Celtic Tiger boom, Paul criticised TD pay increases, that were more than double those of pensioners and those on
disabled benefit, as a ‘urination on the less well-off’.”
