Ireland’s outgoing European Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn said she has “no idea” whether she will start receiving her Irish TD and ministerial pensions again - worth more than €100,000 a year - after she steps down from her role in Brussels this month.
Ms Geoghegan-Quinn, a former Fianna Fáil TD and minister, agreed under political pressure in April 2010 to forgo her pensions from her time as a member of the Dáil and the cabinet for the duration of her five-year term as commissioner for research, innovation and science, when she was paid €250,000 a year.
The former Galway West TD made the decision in response to the economic crisis and the austerity budgets the public were enduring.
Speaking last night before being honoured by the European Institute in Washington, Ms Geoghegan-Quinn said she would not receive the five years' worth of Irish parliamentary pensions she "gifted" in 2010 after leaving Brussels.
“Well you never get back anything that you’ve gifted. You’ve gifted it and that’s it and it’s gone and you forget about it,” she said.
“You know, I have had a great five years. I have been very well paid for the five years. Why would I want to get my pensions back for that period of time?”
Asked whether her Oireachtas and Irish ministerial pensions would start to be paid to her again now that her five-year term at the Commission is ending, she said: "I don't know what happens actually in relation to that. I have no idea."
On leaving the Commission, Ms Geoghegan-Quinn is entitled to at least €100,000 a year from Brussels for three years after she departs to allow her to adjust to life afterwards. She is also entitled to an annual pension of €53,000 from the Commission, payable from September 2015 when she turns 65.
She told Irish reporters in Washington that she passed on "a lot of advice" to Ireland's new commissioner Phil Hogan, coaching him ahead of his successful confirmation hearing in the agricultural portfolio yesterday.
“The thing that I said was get to know the MEPs in advance of your hearing, work with them, listen to what they say to you and then learn all the topics within the portfolio,” she said.
Describing Mr Hogan as “eminently suitable” for the job, she said she watched the hearing from New York at 3am yesterday morning and that she was “very proud” that the agriculture committee ratified him as commissioner.
She declined to comment on the legal dispute between Mr Hogan and Independent MEP Nessa Childers, who objected to his appointment.
Asked whether Mr Hogan would suffer reputational damage as a result of the row, Ms Geoghegan-Quinn noted that it had no effect on his confirmation.
“It was rumbling on for the last number of weeks and yet at the hearing today he got almost overwhelming support by members of the committee,” she said.
Ms Geoghegan-Quinn said the Commission had been "very strong" in urging the Government to stick with tough austerity plans for a €2 billion budget of spending cuts and taxes increases in this month's budget. She expects a lot of discussion on this issue between the EU and Minister for Finance Michael Noonan.
“I have no doubt that the kinds of discussions that will take place will take place in a very cordial way,” she said.
Reflecting on her time Brussels, she told reporters that the highlight of her time was the Commission’s decision to award a 30 per cent budget increase in her portfolio when spending was cut in virtually all other areas after arguing that investment in research and innovation would lead to job growth.
Ms Geoghegan-Quinn, Ireland’s first female cabinet member since the foundation of the State and a 22-year veteran of the Dáil, ruled out a return to politics, saying she planned to take six months off and spend time with her family before considering her next move.
“[I] might write a book - you never know - but some people might have to be dead to publish the book at least,” she joked.
