TD calls for Dail severance payments to be handed back

A Meath West TD has slammed "scandalous" severance payments to former politicians, which amount to over €5 million. Sinn Féin's Peadar Tóibín has called for payments to former politicians to cease after receiving details of the amounts to be paid to former TDs, ministers and senators this year. Deputy Tóibín said politicians who resign or lose their seats at election should be afforded a basic redundancy package. "Figures released to me from the Department of Finance highlight the scandalous sums of money being paid to former politicians," he said. "For instance, Bertie Ahern will receive €78,000 this year while Jackie Healy Rae will receive more than €88,000. With such a high turnover of politicians, both TDs and senators, in the recent elections, the State is facing a bill of €5.3 million in these types of payments over the course of the year," he said. "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. "Sinn Féin believes that politicians who lose or resign their seats should be entitled to a basic redundancy package similar to other workers. There is no reason for these extra payments to be made," he said. According to the figures, former Minister for Transport and Meath Fianna Fail TD Noel Dempsey will receive €77,919 over the next 12 months, made up of a lump sum up front of over €16,000 and the rest in monthly payments of €6,000 and then €4,000 equally over a 12-month period. Former Fianna Fail deputy Johnny Brady will receive €86,286, with over €18,000 up front. Former TD Mary Wallace is listed as not being in receipt of any payments whatsoever while Senator Thomas Byrne, the former FF deputy, is repaying a payment made to him before he was nominated to run for the Seanad. A note on the figures state that he is repaying a lump sum of €15,982 and a first monthly payment of €5,993 which was made to him after he lost his Dáil seat. It is understood that Senator Byrne first made repayments in early June and that the full amount will be paid back by August. "As someone who has paid back, and rightly so, in accordance with Oireachtas regulations, it's a bit rich for Peadar Tóibín to be criticising everyone when his own party, Sinn Fein, has not asked Arthur Morgan to pay his back (Morgan receives over €52,000)," said Senator Byrne. Former Deputy Brady was unavailable for comment at the time of going to press and efforts to contact former Minister Noel Dempsey were unsuccessful. A senior FF source, however, said that Sinn Féin "should have a look at themselves". "They are talking about finance and they take half their wage from the exchequer, saying that they work for an average industrial wage, when that other half goes back to the Sinn Féin party, not the exchequer, which also doles out €40,000 a time to each of their TDs in support," the source added.