Retirement bonanza for councillors

Eleven long-serving members of Clare County Council will receive gratuity payments totalling more than  €620,000 if they fail to get re-elected or step down from local politics at the June 2014 Local Elections.

The Clare Champion can exclusively reveal that veteran councillors with service varying from 15 to 40 years are entitled to payments of €622,827 in total.
Father of the council, Fianna Fáil Councillor PJ Kelly, with 40 years of service, would receive the highest payment of €63,968. The Lissycasey councillor is closely followed by Newmarket party colleague Pat McMahon, who will be entitled to a €63,254 payment.

Independent Councillors Christy Curtin and Patricia McCarthy, who were elected to the county council in 1979, are entitled to €61,824 each, while councillors Tommy Brennan, Bill Chambers and Sonny Scanlan will net €57,540 apiece if they call a halt to their careers in local politics.

A lot of attention will be focused on whether or not former Mayor of Clare, Councillor Brennan, and Fine Gael’s Scanlan opt for another election after both of them confirmed to The Clare Champion this week they are still “undecided”.

All the other councillors, including Councillor PJ Kelly, are planning to put their names on the ballot paper and contest the 2014 local elections at this stage.
Councillor Richard Nagle will get €53,255 and Pat Keane will receive €48,969, while two former mayors, Councillor Pat Daly and Pat Hayes, are entitled to €47,541 each if they don’t run.

The only confirmed non-runner in the election race from the outgoing council is Tubber’s Michael Kelly, who could collect in the region of €35,000 for being a member of the council for 13 years.
Councillor Kelly stressed his decision to bow out wasn’t influenced by the Elected Members’ Retirement Scheme and was primarily based on the controversial redrawing of the electoral areas, which ruled out a large portion of his own base in North Clare.

Senator Martin Conway, who would be entitled to receive a gratuity payment of about €21,500 when he becomes 50 in 11 years, has confirmed he will not be drawing down this gratuity.
“When I became a senator, I don’t believe in double-jobbing and I believe the senate pension is good enough for me. I am not adopting the high moral ground, I just believe it is the right thing to do in my own personal case,” he said.

Senator Tony Mulcahy, who collected about €36,000 from his local authority gratuity, explained it helped secure three part-time jobs in his catering business in Shannon and resulted in the creation of six full-time jobs. He invested the money to recoup the losses from a major contract after a local firm went out of business.

Former deputy, James Breen, who received a Dбil retirement payment of about €45,000 when he failed to get re-elected in the 2007 General Election, would be in line for a local authority gratuity payment of €54,683.

Mayor of Clare Councillor Joe Arkins and Deputy Mayor John Crowe, who were both elected in 1999, could look forward to a payment of €47,541 if they decide to bow out of local politics.

Councillor Arkins noted he hasn’t managed to secure a nomination yet in the new electoral areas. “Conventions will not get underway until autumn. If I am unsuccessful or I don’t run in the election, I will be obliged to donate up to half of my gratuity to the community by way of income tax,” he stated.

Councillors Oliver Garry, Brian Meaney, Cathal Crowe, Joe Cooney, Pascal Fitzgerald and Gerry Flynn will have served a decade on the council by June 2014 and they will have the cushion of €33,448 if their re-election bid fails.

Clarecastle Councillor Paul Murphy, co-opted in 2007 when his fellow parishioner Joe Carey was elected to Dбil Йireann, will pocket in the region of €22,000.
The newest members of the council who have five years experience – Pat Burke, Tom McNamara, Michael Hillery, P J Ryan, Gabriel Keating and Johnny Flynn – would be entitled to €16,724.

Councillor Begley estimates he received almost €3,000 while Councillor Hillery received in the region of €8,000 from previous retirement schemes.
At the bottom end of the scale, Councillors Bill Slattery and Sean McLoughlin will be entitled to just over €11,000, having spent over three years on the authority.

According to official documentation obtained by The Clare Champion, councillors are entitled to receive a €3,344.80 gratuity for every year of service from May 4, 2000 and an ex-gratia payment of €714.23 for the first 20 years and €476.15 per year thereafter up to a maximum of 40 years.

This payment is based on 75% of the amount that would have been paid under the 1999 Retirement Scheme, where retiring members of county councils were paid €750 for the first 20 years of service and €500 for any additional years.

If a councillor has county council and town council service at the same time, the gratuity will be only paid for the county council service. When a person ceases to be a councillor before the age of 50, due to retirement or not being re-elected, the gratuity will be preserved until that person reaches 50 years of age.