POLITICIANS OF all the major parties have expressed strong opposition to any special deal to ease the tax burden on judges’ pensions.
Responding to the disclosure that Chief Justice John Murray raised the concerns of judges about the new tax treatment of pension funds worth more than €2.3 million during a meeting with Taoiseach Enda Kenny, TDs contacted by The Irish Timesyesterday urged the Government not to give way on the issue.
TDs were reluctant to speak on the record, given the separation of powers between the Oireachtas and the judiciary, but they were unanimous in the view that the new budget provisions relating to tax on pensions should be applied equally to all citizens, including judges.
Fine Gael and Labour Party politicians said the programme for government contains a commitment to hold a referendum to allow the State to cut the salaries of judges as part of a pay cut across the public sector.
A spokesman for the judiciary declined to make any comment on the issue. Socialist TD Joe Higgins expressed concern that an elite group like judges should have “privileged access to government” when ordinary people were being forced to endure the consequences of spending cuts.
“It is not defensible in any sense that pension funds worth millions of euro held by judges and others should be untouched by tax.”
Mr Higgins said it was “obscene” that public sector pensions of up to €150,000 were paid to people like senior politicians and some of the semi State chiefs.
He added that he intended to question the Taoiseach next week about when he intended to hold the referendum to empower the Government to cut judges’ pay.
The issue of judges’ pensions was raised during a routine meeting last week between the Chief Justice and the Taoiseach.
The problem about judicial pensions relates to a provision in last December’s budget that set a figure of €2.3 million as the maximum allowable pension fund allowable for tax purposes.
There is no actual fund for public service pensions which are paid out of tax revenues. But calculations will be made about the notional pot of money that would be required to provide the kind of pensions to which judges are entitled.
For instance, a High Court judge on an annual salary of €243,080 can retire on a full pension after 15 years service at the age of 70 with a lump sum of €364,620 and an annual pension of €121,540.
If it is calculated that it would take more than €2.3 million to fund such a pension the judge could face a large tax liability. Any pension entitlements accumulated by the individual before they became a judge will also be included in the calculation.
Among the TDs, senators and political activists gathered in Leinster House for the Seanad election count not only was there no sympathy for the judiciary, there was considerable anger about the manner in which the issue had been raised with the Taoiseach.