Retiring city manager gets €310k handshake

A retiring city manager has received a bumper pension payoff of more than €310,000 after spending nine years in the job.

Tom Mackey’s official duties as Limerick city manager ended on Tuesday and the Waterford man is now able to claim a gross lump sum pension payoff of €311,488 after a long career in local government.

After deductions, Limerick City Council confirmed last night that the net amount Mr Mackey received is €271,466.

The council spokesman said that Mr Mackey’s annual pension payout will be €73,422 per annum.

By the time 58-year-old Mr Mackey reaches his 85th birthday he will have received €1.98m in annual pension payments from the State, on top of the lump sum just received.

And a further seven local authority managers can expect to receive similar bumper payoffs between now and the end of next year.

This follows the Department of the Environment confirming last night that a further three council managers are due to retire this year, with another four to go in 2013.

However, Mr Mackey’s decision to retire now ensures his pension entitlements are based on his salary of €146,844 before government cuts, rather than his ending salary of €142,469.

Last September, former Waterford county manager, Ray O’Dwyer, aged 53, received a similar payout.

Mr Mackey’s exit deal included special terms that are only given to current county and city managers and secretary generals of government departments. These terms were in place prior to a government decision last year to end the special perks for newly-appointed secretaries general.

The special deal means that Mr Mackey gets pension benefits for years he did not work and, in this case, eight years were added to his pension to ensure his pension entitlements.

As part of his pension payoff, Mr Mackey received one and a half time’s his salary, totalling €220,266. In addition, he also received a special severance gratuity of €91,255 — the highest amount ever received by a retiring city manager.

According to figures provided by the Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan, in a written Dáil response to Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou MacDonald, the nearest special severance gratuity was received by former Dublin city manager, John Fitzgerald in 2006 when he received €85,214.

Since 2000, 19 county and city managers have received a total of €1.3m in special gratuity payments.

The Government last year ended the special severance payouts for newly-appointed secretaries general.

However, they remain in place for county managers as it requires legislation to go through the Oireachtas.

Yesterday Ms MacDonald said: “It is simply unacceptable that those at the top of the public sector continue to benefit from this kin

“The average annual pension for civil servants is €30,000, yet city and county managers get awarded a special payment on retirement of up to three times this amount,” the Sinn Féin TD said.

Mr Mackey has been replaced by Kieran Lehane.