Over €20m set aside for election losers

TAXPAYERS will have to fork out over €20 million in pay-offs for the losers they dump from the Dáil at the looming General Election, it emerged last night.

The body overseeing termination payments to TDs and Senators who get rejected by the electorate or retire at the summer poll, estimates one third of the current Oireachtas will not make it back to Leinster House.

The Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) heard the Houses of Oireachtas Commission has set aside €24.6m to cover the equivalent of redundancy payments and pension benefits to ex-Oireachtas members over the next three years.