Government Chief Whip flees bonus protest

FINE GAEL TD Paul Kehoe shut up shop early and fled his Wexford constituency office on Saturday 18 February when dozens of people turned up to ask him to hand back to taxpayers the €17,000 ‘bonus payment’ he gets on top of his TD’s and minister of state’s salary of €130,000 for being Government Chief Whip.

Enniscorthy Sinn Féin Councillor Johnny Mythen said:

“People are asking how he can justify taking such a large pay hike on top of his already generous salary while ordinary people are suffering the effects of harsh austerity measures.

“How can he demand that ordinary people tighten their belts when he’s pocketing an extra €326 per week of their money?”

Councillor Mythen pointed out that the Government Chief Whip’s top-up could pay the Household Charge for 170 homes or the registration fee for the septic tank charge for 3,400 households.

“It would take someone on basic social welfare payments 91 weeks to earn what is only a bonus payment to our local Fine Gael TD. Nothing that Deputy Paul Kehoe can say or do will justify this obscene pay hike.”