Ahern to get €68k severance payment

BERTIE AHERN will get a payoff amounting to about €68,000 after resigning as taoiseach earlier this year.

The severance payment, which is made under Oireachtas rules laid down by him when he was finance minster in 1992, will be made over seven months from May to November.

Further details of severance payments to politicians were released to RTÉ yesterday under Freedom of Information (FOI) and show that two Fianna Fáil TDs, John Browne and Michael Ahern, got payments of €53,000 each after losing their jobs as junior ministers in Brian Cowen’s cabinet reshuffle in May.

The payments will be made over the course of 24 months and come on top of their TDs’ salaries, which start at €100,000.

Both Mr Browne and Michael Ahern said yesterday they were entitled to the payments and had done nothing wrong.

The figures come after the Irish Examiner revealed yesterday that 54 TDs and senators who lost their seats in last year’s elections received termination payments amounting to more than €3 million.

The termination payments to politicians were agreed under Bertie Ahern’s role as finance minister in 1992.

Untaxed lump sums made to politicians when they lose their seats are usually in the region of €6,000 and equivalent to two months’ salary.

Anyone who gave three months of service to the Oireachtas is entitled to monthly payments for up to a year, depending on how long they served as politicians.