Taxpayer foots E3m bill for ousted councillors

TAXPAYERS will have to pick up the tab for a E3 million “consolation prize” that will be paid to hundreds of councillors who lost their seats or retired before the June elections.

An Irish Examiner survey has revealed that the 575 city, county, borough and town councillors, plus town commissioners, lost their seats or retired before the local elections.

They will now be entitled to claim a new retirement gratuity payment brought in by former Environment Minister Noel Dempsey in the 2000 Local Government Bill in compensation for losing their seats, the Department confirmed yesterday. The scheme, which will cost E3.09 million, gives councillors a variety of lump sums tax-free. The average payments will include: