Labour TD never revealed €10k salary

LABOUR Party TD Joe Costello failed to declare his partial teachers’ salary in the Dáil Register of Members’ Interests last year.

Mr Costello is one of 20 current TDs and senators to have been paid a total of almost €500,000 by the Department of Education, for being on leave of absence from a teaching job in the past five years.

The figures released by the department under the Freedom of Information Act show the former secondary school teacher was paid €10,096 in residual salary last year. Teachers in the Dáil or Seanad are entitled to paid leave of absence, receiving the difference between their own salary and that of a replacement teacher.

However, in the 2002 Register of Interests of Members of Dáil Éireann, he declared he received no occupational income. Under the Ethics in Public Office Act, TDs are obliged to declare any work from which they receive payment of more than €2,600 each year, other than their income as an Oireachtas member.

Last night, Costello said he would check his records and any mistaken declaration would be amended.

“It may have been an oversight on my behalf, on the basis that my residual teaching salary was less than €2,600 in previous years,” he said.

The Department of Education figures confirm that, in the three 12-month periods between April 1998 and March 2001, Costello was paid €1,451, €2,053 and €1,260, each below the declarable amount.

He said he will be contacting the Standards in Public Office Commission to notify them of the mistake if that is the case.

“I have no reason to conceal any payments, in fact, I have been trying to finalise my arrangements with the Department of Education for three years, to withdraw from the leave of absence scheme,” Costello said.

He added the figure for last year’s €10,096 payment from the Department of Education included an overpayment of €3,472. The former ASTI president said he had only remained in the leave of absence scheme because of the uncertainty of his Dáil seat in the same Dublin constituency as Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.

Education Minister Noel Dempsey was among the group of Oireachtas members to receive part of their teachers’ salary since 1998, receiving more than €22,000 up to the end of last year.

He said there was no conflict of interest, but he is said to be examining the scheme in light of severance packages now available to TDs and senators when they lose their seats.