Last week's big pay rises for TDs left one Irish Times reader particularly bemused. An insurance broker, he had spent the previous day in a Government department negotiating cover for personal accident insurance for the minister. Officials assured him their minister earned only £55,000 a year. So imagine his surprise to learn in the next day's newspaper that a minister's salary was £91,000, and was now due to rise to £110,000. A flurry of phone-calls established that the minister in question - and eight others insured with the same broker - was insured only for the ministerial allowance portion of his salary. Insurance cover for all nine ministers is now being urgently reviewed.
Quidnunc can be contacted at rholohan@irish-times.ie
The Quidnunc column is also available on The Irish Times website at www.ireland.com