More than 100 ESB staff received €200,000 severance deal each

More than 100 staff who left the ESB on foot of the closure or downsizing of power plants in recent years each received a severance package valued at more than €200,000, the company has said.

The ESB said the deal, which was put in place in 2019, 2020 and 2021, involved a lump sum element and some ongoing payments to personnel until they reached retirement age.

The company also said that separately two other employees had “ceased employment with ESB during the years 2019 to date in 2024 under exit/severance/redundancy packages valued in excess of €200,000 but less than €300,000”.

The State-owned power company set out the details of severance payments made to the value of more than €200,000 in reply to a parliamentary question tabled by Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy.

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The ESB said that in the years 2019-2021, primarily as the result of the closure of the Lough Ree and West Offaly power stations and in connection with the downsizing of operations at the Moneypoint power station, the company had operated a limited voluntary severance programme which was collectively negotiated with trade unions representing staff.

The company said 105 employees had availed of this voluntary severance programme and had ceased employment.

ESB said the staff had departed “on terms which will result in aggregate payments [based on a lump sum element and some ongoing payments to retirement age] in excess of €200,000”.

It said in this case the term “aggregate” referred to the lump sum and ongoing payments in each individual case.

Meanwhile, the governing body of horse racing, HRI, said that since 2019 one payment of €234,696 had been paid out. It said this related to “a compulsory redundancy due to the implementation of a management restructure”.

The State-owned forestry company Coillte said it had made one redundancy payment of more than €200,000 to a senior manager in the years between 2019 and 2024.

Outgoing Taoiseach Leo Varadkar told the Dáil in a written parliamentary answer on Wednesday that the Department of the Taoiseach in 2021 had made a severance/redundancy payment of €145,444 to a special adviser.

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