€13,000 for councillors who quit seats

MOST TDs and Senators are expected to take a golden handshake of almost €13,000 to give up their council seats by the end of June — a year before they are obliged to.

All political parties, except Fine Gael, want their Oireachtas members to give up their council seats and to take this substantial financial sweetener so the new candidates will have 12 months to build up support for next year’s local elections.

The package will be provided in the Local Government Act 2003 and is expected to come into effect this June. It will ban TDs and Senators from holding the dual mandate of national and local seats from June 2004.