Golden handshakes for retiring TDs to cost taxpayer €3.8m

Two ministers and 14 TDs to receive lump sums in first year after they leave Dáil

Conor McMorrow, Political Correspondent

Dermot Ahern (left) and Noel Dempsey: to receive over €300,000 each

THE TWO cabinet ministers and 14 TDs who will not contest the next election will be paid €3.8m in the first year after their retirements, or an average of €237,327.

Cabinet ministers Dermot Ahern and Noel Dempsey are among a growing number of Fianna Fáil TDs who have signalled their intentions not to seek re-election.

Carlow/Kilkenny TD MJ Nolan, Cavan/Monaghan TD Rory O'Hanlon, Tom Kitt from Dublin South, Sean Ardagh from Dublin South-Central, and Mayo's Beverley Flynn are all retiring. Donegal North-East TD Dr Jim McDaid has already left the Dáil.

The retirements have not been confined to Fianna Fáil, with Labour's Dublin South- Central TD Mary Upton, Wicklow TD Liz McManus and veteran Galway West TD and likely presidential candidate Michael D Higgins all retiring at the end of the current Dáil term.

In Fine Gael, Cavan/Monaghan TD Seymour Crawford, Cork South-West TD PJ Sheehan, Laois/Offaly TD Olwyn Enright, and Galway East TD Paul Connaughton are all standing down, as is independent TD for Kerry South Jackie Healy-Rae.

Under the generous pension system, all retiring TDs and ministers receive a termination allowance which is equivalent to two months' salary. For TDs, this is worth €16,404 immediately on retirement. They also receive an additional €36,906 over the following six months in a sliding scale of their salary.

After the six months has elapsed, they receive between €20,000 and €32,000 (based on their service) until their termination payment runs out. When the termination payments have finished, the retired TDs receive a tax-free pension lump sum of €147,636.

This means each retiring TD is in line for a payout in the region of €225,946.

Given that 14 TDs have already declared their intentions to resign, the approximate combined cost to the exchequer will be €3,163,244. Adding in the ministers' windfalls, the total comes to €3,797,244.

Justice minister Dermot Ahern will be paid €318,000 in the first year after his retirement. This is comprised of a pension of €140,861, an initial tax-free sum of €177,636 and an annual pension worth €128,291 for the rest of his life.

Similarly, Noel Dempsey stands to receive payments of over €316,000, which include a tax-free pension lump sum of €159,000, initial termination payments of €56,900 over the first six months, €29,500 over the second six months and €70,730 in graduated ministerial payments. After the first year, he will receive a combined TD and ministerial pension of around €134,000.

December 19, 2010

Comments

#1 phil commented, on December 19, 2010 at 6:31 p.m.:

As there is seemingly not alot one can do about these obscene payments,they should be made feel like social outcasts in their"retirment".they should be rebuked at every oppertunity.I would hate to have to suffer the consequences of my actions should I bump into one of them down my local!

#2 knowtoomuch commented, on December 19, 2010 at 7:11 p.m.:

I hope they dont have to wait up to four months to get job seekers allowance like everyone else......Good to see Noel getting an auld handshake....that should pay for the Malta trip this wintery season....

#3 Fred simpson commented, on December 19, 2010 at 7:26 p.m.:

Yes, getting rid of Dempsey sure is expensive.

But it is cheaper than leaving him in office !! Two decades of errors, mishaps, waste, etc.... He should have been lumpsummed to get out of there a long time ago.

#4 Alan commented, on December 19, 2010 at 8:03 p.m.:

This is the epitome of all that is wrong with this country. These people should get zero, nothing. Who do they think they are. I work very hard, I'm highly qualified after many years of study and I earn a fraction of what these cowboys earn.

Most members of the political establishment are a small club of cosy members who look after each other well. Inflated salaries, pensions, cars, unvouched expenses and on it goes.

These people should be threatened with imprisonement. Irish people are too tolerant. I don't think FG or Labour would be any better. Whats needed is new blood, a break from the current status quo. Until that happens this kind of mullarky will continue unthreatened.

#5 BarryW commented, on December 19, 2010 at 8:46 p.m.:

How can we give all these pensions out? I thought the country was broke?

#6 Pat Murphy commented, on December 19, 2010 at 9:04 p.m.:

What right have these politicians to vote themselves huge salaries, expenses, perks, golden handshakes and pensions after such a short period in office that are higher than available in the private sector or in any Western economy. This is corruption and theft bordering on treason. This level of rip off has to be challenged at a basic level in a Garda station as basic theft from the rest of us. Then their negligence in running the country must also be challenged. If they get away with this then we are dumb lazy fools and deserve to be ripped off and fiscally abused by these money grabbing negligent ego centric thieves. Over to you Press guys and senior civil servants to help and protect us who don't know how to progress our anger from words to action.

#7 Jaker commented, on December 20, 2010 at 2:23 a.m.:

For their pensions they should get "Not a Penny more, not a Penny less" than they need to live on with their families. & that goes for senior bank management & senior civil servants as well. For a change...seeing they were monkeys that got us into this mess, let's pay them peanuts!

#8 Gerry Byrne commented, on December 20, 2010 at 2:58 a.m.:

While these vermin can go about their business untouched we deserve all we get.

#9 Toby commented, on December 20, 2010 at 5:22 a.m.:

There needs to be legislation to tax these pay outs and pensions - at least 50%. It is obscene that these failures are getting such rewards.

#10 ME commented, on December 20, 2010 at 5:48 a.m.:

My wife suffers from reheumatoid arthritis the same condition Ahern is now claiming to have. She had a hip replaced at 35 and 12 years later has now had a knee replaced. She has worked all her life and hopes to return to work when fully recovered from her op. Unfortunately she doesn't have the benefit of a 6 figure state hand-out and similar annual pension to alleviate her suffering. These parasites don't have the balls to face the electorate. Its a case of take the money and run. The State should claim inability to pay. This country is long overdue a political revolution.

#11 brendan buffini commented, on December 20, 2010 at 8:39 a.m.:

Poor oul Ireland didn't know what it was letting itself in for when it replaced British rule with a Church and State Republic. It has taken less than 100 Years For it's Priests and Politicians to turn the Republic's foundations to sand. The physical and financial abusers of the Irish people have left the Country in tatters.

Overcrowded Leinster House has more elected politicians than the Australian parliament (an absolute joke)

For a fart size Country it is certainly giving off a big foul clerical and Political SMELL.

#12 Jaker commented, on December 20, 2010 at 4:52 p.m.:

Did the IMF/EU/British Finance Minister know about these obscene pensions & termination payments? If not! Why not? Or was it just not mentioned by Biffo's Brian & Brian? & yet the rest of us will be paying this debt off till our children are fit to take over & then their children after them.

On that evidence the agreement passed should be terminated (there's that word again) and a new one discussed. Because this one by their in power greed is "Null & Void"!

#13 Paddy commented, on December 20, 2010 at 11:17 p.m.:

As the cold reality of budget cuts is aimed unfairly at the unemployed, the poor, the low paid workers and anyone who is firmly on the bread line- We muse at how those who landed us in this bankrupt state can sleep well being rewarded for failure... It seems that the political elite cling onto their sense of entitlement to lavish themselves with millions of state money at the expense of the less fortunate members of society...
This is an outrage- it's game over and onwards on to the abyss...

#14 john molloy commented, on December 21, 2010 at 12:21 a.m.:

FF(and the rest) take the IMF loan - share it out amongst themselves, the banks and the public service elites and the rest of us pay it back. Tax evasion anyone???
A nation once again....

#15 Maire commented, on December 21, 2010 at 2:33 a.m.:

Of all the Ministers I do not trust, this guy topped the list for me.

#16 John commented, on December 21, 2010 at 1:10 p.m.:

These people think they can escape Irish Justice, these are traitors and will be hung by our 13th String of our Sovereign Harp, in Sovereign Irish Courts.

#17 Richard commented, on December 21, 2010 at 2:05 p.m.:

While Dempsey was in Malta sunning himself I heard reports on LMFM(his local radio station) of old people in Co. Meath living on their own totally isolated due to the adverse weather conditions.Some cried due to lonliness. He apparently thought it unneccessary to ensure as Minister for Transport that appropriate measures were in place to deal with any adverse weather conditions.He recently gave another incoherent interview to the media regarding his career in politics. He mentioned something about conviction.Was it conviction to be available for the elderly in Meath or Fianna Fail style conviction? to be rewarded for being totally useless?

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