Ex-TDs receive €5.3m golden handshakes

MORE than €5.3 million was paid in golden handshake payments to 75 TDs who lost their seats or retired in February’s general elections.

And a further €445,000 was awarded to ministers or junior ministers of the Fianna Fáil-Green Party coalition to compensate for losing their salaries after their election defeat.

This was reduced to €373,000 after a number decided to waive their entitlement.

Ministers and TDs are entitled to a reduced salary for two years after leaving office. The payments amount to 75% of their salary for the first six months, half the salary for the next 12 months and 25% for the last six months.

After the election, 75 outgoing TDs were entitled to one-off termination sums ranging from €15,000 to €20,000, depending on their years of services.

They are then entitled to payments of around €6,000 a month for the next six months, reducing to around €4,000 from six to 12 months after losing their seat.

Former Tánaiste Mary Coughlan is entitled to a step-down payment of €19,800 this year to compensate for the loss of salary.

Former Ceann Comhairle John O’Donoghue is entitled to step-down payments of €67,000 for the first two years after stepping down, as well as a €16,400 lump sum for losing his seat as a TD and €36,000 in monthly payments for a full year.

His former constituency rival, Jackie Healy Rae, was entitled to a €18,626 lump sum payment and monthly payments of €7,000 a month since losing his seat.

Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern will receive step down payments amount to €78,000, before receiving his Taoiseach’s pension.

Limerick City TD Willie O’Dea was awarded a total of €62,000 in monthly severance payments since being forced to resign as Minister for Defence in February 2010 over comments he made about a Sinn Féin candidate in his constituency.

This includes €54,000 in severance payments last year and €8,000 this year.

Cork North Central TD Billy Kelleher has been paid step-down payments amounting to €12,800 so far this year from his three-year stint as a junior minister.

Mayo TD Dara Calleary has been paid €12,820 in step-down payments since moving to the opposition benches. Neither he nor Deputy Kelleher were available for comment last night.

The Fianna Fáil leader, Micheál Martin, applied in March to have his step-down payment stopped and paid back a sum of €4,000 that had been made to his in February — his first month after losing his ministerial salary.

Deputy leader Éamon Ó Cuív has also gifted his back to the state.

The figures were supplied by the Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan, in a written response to a Dáil question from Sinn Féin TD Peadar Tóibín.

The Meath West TD said members who lose their seats or retire should get a basic redundancy package, instead of generous golden handshakes.

“Sinn Féin believes that politicians who lose or resign their seats should be entitled to a basic redundancy package similar to other workers,” he said. “There is no reason for these extra payments to be made.

“At a time when harsh austerity measures, supported by this and the previous government, are causing huge hardship for thousands of families across the state these payments are grossly insulting particularly when many of those in receipt of this money are guilty of causing the economic mess we are in today.”