"I Know What It's Like" To Struggle: Senator, On 82K, Defends Push For Salary Increase

Friday, 8 August 2025 10:37

By Martin Osborne

He claims his current salary is “adequate,” but says politicians should be treated like other public servants when it comes to pay restoration.

Independent Senator Gerard Craughwell insists he’s not looking for a salary increase - just "fairness".

He says long-term pay increments scrapped during austerity still haven’t been restored for a handful of TDs and senators, and it’s now a matter of principle that pay increments are restored.

Craughwell, a former trade union activist now on a salary of over €80,000, says he spent years living in overdraft and even lost his home in the 1980s.

He claims his current salary is “adequate,” but says politicians should be treated like other public servants when it comes to pay restoration.

Speaking to Kfm, the senator dismissed accusations of being tone deaf, saying critics critics are simply chasing political "kudos".

He said he is not even sure if he’d even qualify for a salary increment - but insists he’d have the right to refuse it.

The Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act, or FEMPI, was brought in during the 2009 financial crisis to cut public sector pay - including the wages of TDs, senators, and local councillors.

In 2008, a TD earned €100,191. That dropped to €92,672 in 2009 and €87,258 by 2013.

Senators went from €70,134 in 2008 to €65,621 in 2009, and then to €65,000 in 2013.

From 2011, extra payments for long service were scrapped.

Before that, some TDs earned up to €106,582 and some senators over €74,000, depending on how long they'd been in office.

A TD now earns €117,133 and a senator gets €82,018.

"I make no claim that politicians are entitled to an increase in pay," Craughwell said.

He said his issue is that FEMPI has not been unwound.

"When people elected their politicians, they knew the terms and conditions of their employment that would be applied to them...they are what they are and that's it - there is nothing I can do about that," he said.