Over €14m paid to ex-TDs and Senators after elections

Ken Foxe

Leinster House paid more than €14.5 million in severance, redundancy, and pension lump sums to ex-TDs and Senators and their staff since last year’s elections.

The Oireachtas said €2.98 million was paid in monthly termination payments to politicians who retired or lost their seats.

That money was shared between 70 different people, for an average of €41,800 per recipient.

The monthly payments are made to TDs and Senators who have at least three years of continuous service and are designed to ease them back into civilian life.

Separately, a total of €1.14 million was paid out in termination lump sums under the generous departure Oireachtas package.

That was also for 70 ex-TDs and Senators, and worked out at around €16,000 each.

An information note said lump sum payments were made where a person had at least six months of continuous service in the Dáil or Seanad.

It said: “If the above conditions are satisfied, a termination lump sum equivalent to two months of salary, including salary allowances held over the period of continuous service, will be payable.

“This lump sum is subject to the rules of the Revenue Commissioners regarding severance payments.”

A further €3.022 million was paid in pension lump sums to retiring and departing TDs and Senators, according to figures released under FOI.

That pot was shared between 22 people for an average of just over €137,000.

All of them also qualified for annual pensions – which ranged in size from €7,796 to €63,467 per annum.

Some of the individuals would also be entitled to ministerial pensions, though those payments are made through the Department of Finance.

Until recent years, the names of which former politicians received what were published, but that practice has now ceased on privacy grounds.

Around €7.45 million was also paid to staff members of former TDs and Senators after last year’s elections, documents released under FOI show.

That included severance payments of €6.189 million, which were paid to 187 people – an average of around €33,000 each.

Another €1.26 million was paid in statutory redundancy to 116 different ex-staff.

Those payments were worth an average of just under €11,000, the records showed.

Of that group, nine were reemployed after the elections, meaning they had to make repayments of either severance or redundancy.

The Oireachtas said €192,875 had been repaid in severance by nine people, while one additionally repaid €14,116 in redundancy.

An information note explained: “A person employed under the scheme must repay the [money] received under the scheme, plus any compound interest accruing, if they propose to take up an offer of employment under the scheme within one year.

“Where [an exit payment] has been repaid, any future [payment] or pension lump sum will be based on all service in the scheme.”