Taoisigh and gardaí had a shorter timespan to accumulate pension rights because it was understood they would not be in the same position for a long period, Minister for Public Expenditure Brendan Howlin has told the Dáil.

“Fast-accrual pensions are occupation-specific,” he said.

Mr Howlin said the Government had taken dramatic measures to reduce salaries. The first action taken by the Taoiseach on taking office was to impose a cap of €200,000 on his salary.

Further reduced

“This cap obviously has an impact on his pension, and his salary has been further reduced since,” he said. “These reductions have filtered down to all officeholders.”

Mr Howlin said there was public annoyance that people who were charged with oversight had walked away from politics and public administration after the debacle of the crisis.

“People believe they did not take a proportionate hit for the crisis that had happened,’’ he said. “That is a concern for them, but we can only go so far within the Constitution.

“We have introduced a pension abatement figure of 20 per cent for those on the highest pensions, which is as far as I was advised I could go legally.”

The Minister was replying to People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett, who said he and other public representatives had encountered public concern about "the running sore" of ministerial pensions.

“People keep talking about this and are outraged and furious that some of the key ministers and taoisigh involved in bankrupting the country have walked away with enormous severance payments and pensions.”

Emergency measures

Mr Boyd Barrett said people wanted the Government to re-examine what could be done and whether further measures could be taken.

“They are outraged by this when they cannot make ends meet and have been hit with emergency measures, the imposition of water charges and all the rest,” he said.