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Local councillors who lost seats to receive retirement payments of €6m

Councillors who bowed out at May's local elections are to receive retirement gratuities of at lea...
Newstalk
Newstalk

07.03 15 Oct 2019


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Local councillors who lost sea...

Local councillors who lost seats to receive retirement payments of €6m

Newstalk
Newstalk

07.03 15 Oct 2019


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Councillors who bowed out at May's local elections are to receive retirement gratuities of at least €6m in total.

Seventeen of them will get at least €70,000 each.

Councillors who lost their seats in May, or chose not to contest the elections, are entitled to a lump sum based on their experience on the local authority.

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Most of these payments have been processed, but those who are not 50-years-old will only receive the payments when they reach that age.

Some 28 of the 31 local authorities across Ireland have now released the details of the amounts to be paid, following Freedom of Information requests.

They come to a total of just under €6m.

Wicklow County Council's bill is highest, with 12 former representatives due more than €505,000.

Across the country, 17 former councillors are to get at least €70,000.

Topping the list is Longford's Luie McEntire, who quit after 40 years' service.

He was paid just under €80,000 in June.

But Mr McEntire does not think the payments are excessive: "We've given our lifetime to local government.

"We did get a certain amount of it as a tax free - but there was nearly the half of it then was taxable".

"In my situation, for 40 years service, it works out at about €29 a week that I would have got as a pension".

Louth's Peter Savage and Laois's David Goodwin were allocated marginally less after 45 years on their respective councils.

Kerry and Kildare County Councils did not provide their statistics.

Reporting by Eoghan Murphy


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County Councils David Goodwin Local Councillors Local Elections Luie McEntire Peter Savage Retirement Gratuities Retirement Payments Wicklow County Council

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