THREE FORMER senators are in line to receive more than €200,000 each in retirement benefits over the next 13 months.
New figures show outgoing Seanad members are entitled to receive more than €2 million in pension and termination payments. The highest pension entitlements are due to Ivor Callely, who is entitled to receive almost €229,000 in payments over the next year because at 52 years old he qualifies for a pension.
According to the Oireachtas guidelines, Mr Callelly is entitled to receive over €55,000 in termination payments, including a “termination lump sum” equating to two months’ salary; a further “pension lump sum” of just under €160,000; and a further pension payment of €13,638 arising from his time as a junior minister.
All three entitlements are payable in the 13 months after retirement. Thereafter Mr Callely is entitled to an annual pension of over €63,000.
An attempt was made to contact Mr Callely by e-mail for comment on these figures as phone numbers for the former senator either rang out or were no longer in use. However, he did not respond.
Donie Cassidy is entitled to receive a combined pension lump sum, termination lump sum and termination payments totalling €225,000 in the next 13 months, after which he is entitled to an annual pension of more than €60,000.
This latter figure includes a pension entitlement for over eight years in which he served as leader of the Seanad.
When contacted regarding his pension entitlements, Mr Cassidy said the entitlements received by outgoing senators were in keeping with what other “high-end earners get in the public sector”.
Another outgoing senator, John Ellis, is entitled to €215,000 within the first year of his retirement. Attempts to contact Mr Ellis for comment were unsuccessful.
Among the outgoing senators, there are those who are not yet entitled to receive pensions as they are not of the age to qualify. Those members who were elected since April 2004 cannot receive a pension or pension lump sum until they reach 65.
However, those senators who do not yet qualify for a pension or a pension lump sum are able to claim termination payments, including a termination lump sum.
Eight senators who are not yet entitled to pensions are due to receive almost €200,000 in termination payments between them within the next year.
Two senators, Niall Ó Brólchain and James Carroll, who were elected to the Seanad through byelections in late 2009, only qualify for a termination lump sum, calculated at two months of a senator’s salary, as they did not serve out the minimum three years required to receive termination payments and do not accrue pension entitlements.
When contacted Mr Ó Brólchain likened the termination lump sum to a redundancy payment.
All the calculations are based on guidelines from the Oireachtas press office and the Department of Finance and are, therefore, an estimate of the outgoing members’ entitlements on retirement.