Pensions for bludgers

The little bollix is up to his tricks again. Not content with eating cereal in the cupboard and keeping his cash in a suitcase, Bertie has decided to roll back on his promise to refuse the pension after helping to banjax the country.

Along with his mates in the tent cabinet at the time of the brown envelopes Celtic Tiger and the subsequent crash, Bertie was expected to hand back some of his exceptional pension benefits, especially as he was still fully employed in the Dáil.

No chance. Of the 116 former ministers qualified for pensions (massive pensions) last year only 7 gave them up, in whole or in part. They are, drum roll please, they are President Michael D Higgins (€88,000), EU Commissioner Maire Geoghegan Quinn (€124,000), former Labour junior minister Eithne Fitzgerald (€17,000), former Labour Dublin MEP Proinsias De Rossa (€28,000) and current Fine Gael Dublin MEP Gay Mitchell (€4,627), Liam Aylward and Liam Cosgrave gave up small parts of their ministerial pensions.

Bear in mind that these people may also be on full or part salaries for other services to the state, such as TDs pensions of 53,000. Ministerial Pensions can run as much as €150,000 in the cases of Bertie and Cowen.

Enough to make you burst. For more on the pension shenanigans catch up with this rabble issue 5 piece from Scratch Dat Itch