The Irish Independent recently featured an article on the impending retirement of Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, the Irish member of the 2009-14 European Commission who held the Research, Innovation and Science portfolio.
As a former Irish minister of State, Mrs Geoghegan-Quinn had already accrued a pension entitlement of over €100,000 per year, although such was the outcry about this upon her appointment to the European Commission that she agreed to give her pension away to the State during her five-year term in Brussels. Considering her monthly salary as a Commissioner amounted to almost €20,000 per month (plus expenses, of course), this altruism was hardly going to land her in poverty. Now her stint as a Commissioner has ended, she can not only enjoy her Irish pension again but also a pension from the European Commission of more than €54,000 a year and a “transitional allowance” over three years amounting to 55pc of her salary, or €137,000 per year.
It is hardly surprising that any politician who begins their career as a Eurosceptic soon finds their views change once they get onto the Brussels gravy train. It now seems impossible to believe that on 8th January 1986, Neil Kinnock said, “We believe there should be reforms in the EEC which would benefit all the members. If these were not achieved, our policy is to preserve the ultimate option of withdrawing Britain.” Truly the love of money is the root of all evil, especially the vast amount of hard-earned European taxpayers’ money lavished on these worthless officials.
For the full article, click here
