Charlie McConalogue confirms agreement of payment plan over pension entitlements error

Donegal Minister of State Charlie McConalogue has confirmed that he was one of the serving and former ministers who were overpaid due to errors in pension deductions.

It has been confirmed that the Minister of State at the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport has a payment plan agreed following the error which was due to miscalculations made on pension entitlements by the National Shared Services Office (NSSO).

Last June, it emerged that more than 34 serving ministers had received overpayments as a result of miscalculations made on their pension entitlements and that  32 of those owed money to the State. The sums involved ranged from hundreds of euro to more than €30,000. Two ministers had been underpaid and were owed money.

A spokesman for Mr McConalogue confirmed “that he has a payment plan agreed with the NSSO to clear the amount owed”.

The issue arose as a result of a voluntary reduction in salary that had applied to his salary of 10% of his Dail and ministerial salary for each year of the previous government, the spokesman said. 

“The NSSO has subsequently indicated that they made a mistake and that the pension levy should have been paid on the part of the salary that was donated and Minister McConalogue subsequently received a bill for a pension levy to be paid on the money he had donated,” the spokesman added.

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“I can confirm on behalf of the Minister that he has a payment plan agreed with the NSSO to clear this amount.”

On Thursday, Donegal Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty had called on ministers involved to clarify their position.

“Ten serving government ministers - some earning over €200,000 - have still not repaid money they were never entitled to,” he said.

“Seven months have passed and not a single red cent has been returned by those ministers. The failure to return the money only came to light when I questioned Minister Jack Chambers at the Finance Committee this week.

“Not only have these ministers paid nothing back, so far none of them have even put their hands up to admit they are one of the 10.”