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Michael D Higgins is second highest earning Head of State in Europe with salary of €330k

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The President’s salary is almost seven times the wage of an average worker here

Yesterday at 19:20

Phoenix Park resident and President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins, is the second-highest-paid president in Europe, according to new research.

The President’s wage of over €330,000 a year puts him behind Swiss president Viola Amherd, who is the highest-paid in Europe, earning an estimated €545,183 a year.

However, President Higgins’ salary is seven times that of the average worker’s salary in this country, Businessplus.ie reports.

That puts Mr Higgins behind only Slovakian president Zuzana Čaputová, whose €187,567 salary is 7.8 times that of her average workers, and the president of Bulgaria, Rumen Radev, whose €124,000 is ten times the average wage in that country.

Slovenia’s Nataša Pirc Musar earns the lowest of all at €44,701 per year.

Mr Higgins is paid more than French president Emmanuel Macron, who is on €190,752 per year, or almost four times the salary of the average worker in his Republic.

On average, European heads of state earn 4.1 times as much as the average earner and cost taxpayers €49.62 per hour.

President Higgins previously vowed to waive 23.5% of his salary and take a yearly wage of €249,014 back in 2011.

But a spokesman confirmed that this was no longer happening. However, the President “continues to voluntarily gift to the State both his Oireachtas and ministerial pensions”.

The report noted: “Importantly, however, Ireland is one of the wealthiest economies in Europe. With a GDP per capita of US$112,248 – the highest of all the evaluated European countries – its President officially earns 3.22 this amount.

“Therefore, compared to GDP per capita, Ireland’s President’s salary is, in fact, in the top ten lowest relative to the country’s overall wealth.”

Michael Slot, author of the study, said: “While a head of state’s role is generally very limited in power, some presidents’ salaries appear to be disproportional to their real-life workload, how wealthy or poor the country is and how much other average citizens earn.