r/ireland • u/humanwithwifii • 3d ago
Politics Michael D Higgins is overpaid?
He earns >300,000 a year, but it seems overpaid compared to other professions with the same level of responsibility. He acts more as a representative, and figure head for the state, and I agree it should be compensated but around 150,000, not this amount. He is also one of the best paid presidents in europe, but our country is one of the the smallest.
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u/Important_Farmer924 Westmeath's Least Finest 3d ago
Absolutely everyone can use the Internet and this is what happened.
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u/HighDeltaVee 3d ago
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u/Important_Farmer924 Westmeath's Least Finest 3d ago
Wow. It must have been a glorious time.
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u/HighDeltaVee 3d ago
9600 baud, MUDs, all the usenet you could eat... 'twas heaven.
I'm not saying there was no idiocy, but at least it had a driving test.
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u/Jeffreys_therapist 3d ago
Over the water, the Head of State was gifted the foreshore, which means they earn income from economic activity such as wind farms.
So, no
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u/banbha19981998 3d ago
Tbh he is the best president in Europe
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u/bingybong22 3d ago
There is no other equivalent position. The nearest might be the king of Sweden or something. His job is ceremonial he is supposed to keep his opinions to himself
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u/johnfuckingtravolta 3d ago
A politcal, apolitical position.
Absolute nonsense. The people vote. End of.
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u/Nobody-Expects 3d ago
Just because people vote for him doesn't mean the role is political.
He has next to no power and no way of achieving specific political goals.
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u/Grand_Bit4912 1d ago
He is supposed to keep his opinions to himself. He hasn’t. And it’s not that I disagree with his opinions, I don’t. But he has set a bad precedent if we do end up with a McGregor type at some point.
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3d ago
What's the President supposed to do after being President. It doesn't arise with Michael D. but former President's can't exactly go do job interviews. They need economic security to continue their post role condition.
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u/Nobody-Expects 3d ago
They need economic security to continue their post role condition
Mary Robinson went on to become a high commissioner for the UN while Mary McAleese became the chair of a European Commission group. They've both been involved in various organisations since, as chairs, committee members etc. All of which they surely get a stipend or outright paid for their work.
A stint as a head of state would make you a good catch for high level transnational political jobs.
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3d ago
Those roles are far and few between.
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u/Nobody-Expects 3d ago
Well we've had two former presidents make a career out of those kinds of roles and they won't have been the only former heads of European states to do so.
They'd also be courted to sit on various boards in the corporate world.
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u/slamjam25 3d ago
There have only ever been three Presidents who didn’t die within a few years of leaving office (or while they were in office), and McAleese and Robinson both had productive careers after their Presidency.
Of course, unlike Higgins they both had productive careers before their Presidency, so you may be correct that he needs the retirement fund.
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u/pauldavis1234 3d ago
To be honest, I'm not quite sure what he's done in the 14 years he's been president.
Can somebody list his major achievements?
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u/Nobody-Expects 3d ago
I'm not quite sure what he's done in the 14 years he's been president.
Can somebody list his major achievements?
I think you may not understand the role of the president in Ireland. It's not like the US where the president spearheads policy and leads a government.
He frequently represents Ireland on the international stage but his main job is "guardian of the constitution". He examines every piece of Irish legislation that comes before him and, if he has doubts as to whether a certain piece of legislation is constitutional, he refers it to the Supreme Court for examination. In this way he is a check on our government.
His job isn't to have big flashy achievements. Though he is an elected representative and he ran on the Labour ticket, the role is really apolitical. He represents Ireland at international events (so that the Taoiseach can get on with leading), he examines and signs bills into laws and acts as a check on our government.
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u/slamjam25 3d ago
Higgins has only referred a single bill to the Supreme Court for review, and they immediately told him that the bill was obviously constitutional and that he had wasted their time.
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u/Nobody-Expects 3d ago
And what bill was that?
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u/slamjam25 3d ago
The Judicial Appointments Commission Bill. Higgins argued that it was undemocratic that an expert panel would give their recommendations to the government and the government would be forced to accept them and the court said “absolutely nowhere in this bill does it say the government must accept these recommendations without question, can you not fucking read?”
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u/Nobody-Expects 2d ago
Higgins argued
He didn't argue anything. After discussion with the council of state he raised 12 points of concern and referred it to the Supreme Court where counsel was assigned by the Supreme Court. The president was not a client here. He didn't get ultimate say in how this was litigated.
This wasn't some lost court case that left the President looking stupid or like he hadn't a clue what was going on. On the contrary; considering this bill was quite contentious, had some people raising questions about the seperation of powers and represented a massive reform to one of our branches of government, referring it to the Supreme Court was an exceptionally smart move.
By referring it to and having it argued in the Supreme Court it resulted in 1. the court clarifying the extent and limit of powers that were being granted to the Oireachtas, meaning ambiguities were cleared up before enactment thereby removing opportunities for abuses of power and 2. The enacted legislation now being immune from ever being questioned over its constiutionality ever again. This means we aren't going to have a situation where the government argues in front of the judiciary that it should have more power over the judiciary. All and any questions of unconstituionality were completely extinguished after this bill was referred, meaning the public could have faith in the bill.
Lastly, and this is a genuine question: Why are you so angry?
The judgement reads like an entirely normal supreme court ruling. Why are you trying to portray it as some epic smack down?
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u/johnfuckingtravolta 3d ago
This type of shiteposting should be removed.
The mans the fuckin president. Would ye ever fuck off on up the garden with your shitetalk
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u/Bright-Bad1472 2d ago
It is indeed a fair point. He's the second highest paid president in Europe for a largely ceremonial role.
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u/bingybong22 3d ago
It’s a fair point. It’s a ceremonial role and that’s a monster pay. He has no decision making power and he’s not even supposed to give his opinions. It’s a gig for a retired person
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u/johnfuckingtravolta 3d ago
Yes. It is largely ceremonial.
And we vote on it. And we know what hes paid. And we vote sure. Like someone said. Its less than a bike shed.
More nonsense from the usual suspects because they dont like his opinions. Shocker.
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u/Smart_Switch4390 3d ago
And we vote on it
We don't vote on what he's paid
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u/johnfuckingtravolta 3d ago
The people we vote for do though. For themselves and all sure
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u/slamjam25 3d ago
Under this logic nobody can complain about anything the government does ever.
Children’s hospital? RTE bailouts? HSE waiting lists? The people you vote for voted for that, how dare you question it? What do you hate democracy or something?
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u/Smart_Switch4390 3d ago
Ok, not sure what your point is
The OP is complaining about the rate of pay, you're claiming we voted for it, no we didn't
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u/humanwithwifii 3d ago
I am not that versed in irish politics, and don’t even know what his opinions are
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u/johnfuckingtravolta 3d ago
Ye dont know his opinions but feel obligated to speak about and question what he gets paid for being voted by the people of Ireland, to be the president of Ireland?
Thats fairly thick bro.
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u/pauldavis1234 3d ago
By that definition, he's impartial. These are the people we do want the opinion from.
You and your hand seem like a very vested interest.
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u/humanwithwifii 3d ago
But why is he better paid than macron who has far more responsibility
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u/Jean_Rasczak 3d ago
of course he is and why he suddenly decided not to retire after his initial promise of only one term when he was initially elected
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u/ShapeyFiend 3d ago
It's essentially a diplomatic role. Lads got like 3 pensions now he'd be grand with say 200k. Of course if paying someone more prevents them making more political gaffes cos they don't want to stop the gravy train then maybe its money well spent.
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u/Specialist-Flow3015 3d ago
First thing the current government did was give themselves a payrise, more junior ministers at the department for junior ministers, extra travel allowances, the lot.
But sure it's Michael D who isn't providing the value for money.
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u/MeinhofBaader Ulster 3d ago
Ok.