Former justice minister Alan Shatter fired a parting shot at ex-cabinet colleagues by donating his ministerial severance payment to a charity that has led the campaign against the Government’s medical card cuts.

Having taken the moral high ground by endorsing coalition legislation scrapping severance payments for ex-ministers, there is a bitter twist of irony about former minister Alan Shatter’s compromise of accepting the €70,000 payment and then giving the money away to the Jack and Jill charity.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has put pressure on Alan Shatter, the ex-justice minister, to refuse a "golden goodbye" payment of €70,000.