Golden goodbye: Senators will get €5m severance if Seanad scrapped

Gold-plated severance pay packages amounting to nearly €5m will be dispensed to senators — even before their pensions kick in — if the electorate vote to abolish the Seanad.

Paddy Burke, the Seanad chairman, will get over €250,000 while one in six senators will get almost €150,000 or more in special termination payments and lump sums, the Irish Examiner can reveal.

The 60 senators are entitled to special severance packages including a termination lump sum and separate staggered termination payments as well as a pension lump sum. The three sets of payments are in addition to what outgoing senators will get for an annual pension.