Ireland. Public-sector pensions worth millions, new figures show
Public-service pensions paid to TDs, doctors and judges would cost private-sector workers between €2.4 million and €3.7 million if they were to seek the same retirement benefits, new figures show.
The State uses taxes to fund the guaranteed pensions paid to its civil and public servants, including the €378,000 lump sum and €326,000 a year that former taoiseach Enda Kenny is receiving. The full value of this in private-sector terms is €5.17 million.
Calculations by the Association of Pension Trustees of Ireland (APTI) show private-sector workers and their employers would have to spend millions of euro to earn the same retirement benefits.
At the same time, the figures used by the Revenue Commissioners to “value” pensions paid to retiring State employees for tax purposes also indicate these benefits are worth large sums to the workers who receive them.
The association’s examples include a High Court judge, retiring at 70 with a lump sum of €255,000 and a pension of €85,000 a-year. In the private sector, that would cost €2.93 million for a pot that included a 50 per cent pension paid to a surviving spouse, or €2.6 million without that benefit.
Full content here: The Irish Times
