WHY RULE RUSSIA WHEN YOU CAN HAVE ROSCOMMON!

The boss of Ireland’s smallest county gets paid more than the Prime Minister of Finland and Spain every year.

That’s right folks. I kid you not.

Jackie Maguire, county manager of Leitrim County Council, which is home to 30,000 people is astonishingly paid €132,000 a year, compared to Spain’s Mariano Rajoy who receives 92,000. The Sunday World piece I came across goes on to state the salaries of several other county managers. And it’s alarming.

Maguire’s annual fee (which is shamefully €100,000 more than even the Prime Minister of industrial heavyweight South Korea) is actually on the small end of the scale. Whilst his colleagues in Carlow, Laois, Longford, Sligo and Tipperary earn around the same, council chiefs in Galway, Clare, Donegal, Kilkenny and Roscommon earn an average of around €142,000 – more than Russian president Vladimir Putin!

The prime minister of Taiwan will take in an annual wage of €136,00o – the exact rate that both Westmeath’s and Wexford’s county managers will take home. And for the fat cats creaming it, there’s even better news when it comes to Kildare, Meath, Cork, Dun Laoghaire and Limerick.

Those counties will see their boss racking in a massive €153,000 a year – more than the Prime minister of Sweden – a country famous for its efficient and well organized public services, unlike here.

Cork County Council boss Martin Riordan, along with Fingal chief David O’Connor and the head of South Dublin Joe Horan will pocket an outrageous €162,000. But that not the tip of this despicable money grabbing mountain. No that’s left to Dublin City Council boss John Tierney who earns €190,000 a year ... more than UK prime minister David Cameron.

I say that again - €190,000 to sit in an office of a city ...more money that the man that runs over 50-odd million people in the United Kingdom.

It’s even more than the Dutch prime minster who earns slightly more than the head of Kildare County Council.

What a joke we are.

We all laughed in utter bewilderment when we found out Brian Cowen was being paid more that the head of the most powerful nation on earth, but these figures show the same problem, right on your own doorstep (I’m still trying to track down how much the county manager is paid in Waterford) but these figures confirm the crony-ism in our country, and the shocking fees paid to these men. Of course it all effects us as the huge pay cheques for these council bosses will be funded by the new property tax , which will cost €297 for an average home. And of course Mr. Hogan will want you to pay it.