KARL DEETER: HOW THE LIST WAS COMPILED

PENSIONS

First we valued pensions. To do this, we took the pension benefits accrual system, which was obtained from the Oireachtas office, to figure out the amount each TD is eligible for in their annuitytype pensions — and also for lump sums, which are based on years of service. There are many vagaries in this because laws have changed several times.

To allow for this, and give consistent treatment, we assumed that all TDs would have the right to quit at any time (to factor in termination payments), that some would be able to retire immediately (they are already at pension age) or at their normal retirement age (currently 66 to 68). We then made calculations using retirement age based on the current rules — although some may be able to retire before that if they were a TD prior to the rule changes coming in 2004.

Quotes are based on placing a valuation on pensions in the here and now using ‘net present values’. This ensures that all of the values are equalised factoring in time.

We then used an industry standard pensions quoting engine to get annuity rates from age 69 and above and down as far as age 60. For TDs aged 60 or more, a live annuity quote was used; below that age, we used an assumed annuity rate of 2pc, which is roughly where annuity rates are. The calculation included inflation protection and a spousal pension of 50pc, which mirrors the type of pension that a TD or senator qualifies for.

We can’t model for certain things such as senators being able to ‘buy’ TD years, but we did allow for ministerial pensions which are not paid for by the Oireachtas. In those cases, a person who lasts at least two years in a higher station than TD or senator (everything from ceann comhairle to ministers of state and ministers etc.) will qualify for a pension of 20pc of the higher salaried amount. It goes up every year in increments of 5pc and maxes out at 10 years’ service, at which point 60pc of the additional salary is payable as a pension, but there are no lump sum payments.

Ministers are paid €69,545 on top of their TD salary so 10 years spent as a minister will get a person a pension on top of their TD pension of €41,727 at retirement. Lump sums were calculated and put into present values. Termination payments were added in at today’s values because, once you qualify for them, you don’t need to discount the future value or wait until retirement, they can be taken at any time.

For younger TDs, we didn’t calculate the entire termination value, only the main lump sum of it, which is currently €15,600. Factoring in all of these things gave us the ‘political value’ of a politician, which is the comparable asset value they have by the virtue of having held their political seat. We didn’t factor in current wages, allowances, other pensions or other benefits from being in committees.

It is worth noting that politicians do make a 6pc contribution of salary toward their pensions. They also pay the pension levy, which is 10pc of salary above €28,750 and below €60,000, and 10.5pc above that.

That means a TD earning the standard €93,599 (which doesn’t include expenses or allowances) will pay €6,653 a year in pension levies and €5,615 from their income. Some with long service are also paying for pensions but not accruing additional benefit for doing so because the pensions max out at 20 years’ service.

PROPERTY

To value everything else, we looked at declarations made to the Register of Members’ Interests — where they are required to declare their interests outside of their political life. This doesn’t include family homes, but family homes can be a huge store of wealth so we included them where we could.

It also doesn’t include homes they may currently occupy. So if a TD owns a second home in Dublin which they use while they attend the Dail, then they don’t have to list that property. Some, such as former Taoiseach Enda Kenny, do list such properties. Others, such as the current Tanaiste, choose not to.

To get details, we looked at guides like Nealon’s; we also searched the Land Registry for unregistered property and the Property Registration Authority for property that is registered.

After that, we searched every county in the nation to match politicians’ names against folio numbers, then followed up with a Land Registry map search to determine the property in question. Sometimes this was followed with a Google Maps search and Street Views to ensure we had the best possible understanding of the property.

Then, a comparative valuation was used. Comparisons were taken from live sales on websites such as Daft.ie or MyHome. ie, or, where possible, we checked the Property Price Register. Where that wasn’t possible, we used the investment method of valuations.

The investment method assumes yields of c. 7pc, so if we were trying to value a retail unit in a local town, we looked at another retail unit and assumed that the annual rent represented 7pc of the value of the property and determined a capital valuation from that.

For land values, we used weighted averages from the Farmers Journal land price publication. This means we potentially undervalue good land and overvalue lesser land but it does give a fair and uniform approach to agricultural land where only the size is known.

SHARES

The valuing of publicly traded shares assumes a minimum value of €13,000 because that is the threshold above which a declaration has to be made according to the declaration guidelines.

In some cases, a politician may have said they held certain shares that were valued at €1,000. In those instances we reduced the valuation because they had disclosed the actual value themselves.

In all cases we erred on the side of caution and, where we couldn’t figure out a valuation, we returned a figure of zero.

If a politician mentioned that something was worth a certain amount on their declaration form, we went with that amount.

BUSINESS VALUE

Companies were valued by taking the equity holders’ funds as per account returns in the Companies Registration Office.

The equity value, or net assets, would be divided by the shareholding. If a company was worth €100,000 and the politician owned 50pc of the shares, we’d value it at €50,000.

Some politicians use unlimited companies and such firms don’t have to file accounts (this will change in 2022). In those cases, we took the last known public figure available for the valuation. Larchfield Securities which is partly owned by TD Sean Haughey, have never filed an account we can trace so we cannot place a valuation on it above the minimum sum for declaration.

Directorships and shares of private companies were queried using Vision-Net .ie a popular companies searching facility.

In some cases we have estimated the value of a business based on our analysis of publicly available data

The last step was to add all of the ‘political value’ to the ‘non-political value’ to give a final ‘full value’ for each politician.