I saw a post on facebook basically jeering at brian cowen over his large monthly pension. Interesting that former presidents Mary Mcaleese and Mary Robinson earn even larger pensions yet do not face any criticism. Whatever you think about Brian Cowen and his handling of economy he had the very difficult job of steering the country through the financial crisis and faced horrendous abuse. In other words he had alot of responsibiity therefore his pension at least reflects this. However the role of president has no real responsibility its basically travelling the world representing ireland, being polite to people who come to tea at the aras and thats basically it. Why is there no publicity and hostility to the former presidents over this very large pension after a job with no responsibility or difficulty. These people assumed the presidency at a relatively young age so we are going to be paying these large pensions for a long time.