Election 2024

What happens when politicians fall short on Dáil re-election?

Twenty-six TDs who lost their seat have two weeks to clear out their Leinster House office

People Before Profit's Gino Kenny was an election casualty. Photograph: Colin Keegan/Collins
People Before Profit's Gino Kenny was an election casualty. Photograph: Colin Keegan/Collins
Sarah Burns
Tue Dec 03 2024 - 17:47

TDs who lost their seats in the general election have said they are “coming to terms” with life after politics and are deciding what they will do next.

The 26 politicians who failed to get re-elected have two weeks to clear out their Leinster House office and are understood to have access to their Oireachtas email until January 6th. The 34th Dáil is due to sit for the first time on Wednesday, December 18th.

TDs who have resigned or lost their seats are entitled to receive a termination lump sum and termination payments before receiving pension entitlements, subject to certain conditions.

To qualify for the termination lump sum, the equivalent of two months’ salary, a TD must have at least six months of continuous service and not become a member of the following Oireachtas or immediately become an MEP or be appointed by the government to a full-time position.

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They are also entitled to monthly termination payments if they have at least three years of continuous service. The number and rate of payments are based on the years of continuous service.

People Before Profit’s Gino Kenny said he was considering whether he would go back to being a care worker, but would have to retrain first.

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Mr Kenny, who was first elected for Dublin Mid-West in 2016, had been a councillor on South Dublin County Council since 2009.

“You have to re-evaluate everything because I’ve been a public representative for the last nearly 16 years. All of a sudden you’re not any more,” he said. “I’ll be a bit more clearer probably in the new year as to what I want to do.”

Mr Kenny also said there was a “knock-on” effect for his parliamentary assistant and secretarial assistant who would also lose their jobs as a result of not securing re-election.

“It’s very difficult for them as well,” he added. “I think they will get paid for six weeks.”

Fianna Fáil’s Joe Flaherty, who lost out in Longford-Westmeath, said “there’s no slap harder than the slap of a ballot box”.

Before being elected in 2020, Mr Flaherty was a local councillor in Longford and managing director of Iconic Newspapers, the owner of several local titles.

He said he wasn’t sure if he would return to media and noted “the turmoil that industry is in”.

“The media space I left is a very different space now,” he said.

Mr Flaherty’s party colleague, and Minister of State for Health, Anne Rabbitte said she hadn’t decided what she would do next and was “just coming to terms with it”.

Fine Gael’s Bernard Durkan, who was the longest-serving TD in the Dáil, missed out for Fine Gael in Kildare North.

“There’s a lot of stuff to settle,” he said. “There’s the ongoing problem of people’s cases who we are dealing with and making some arrangements to ensure there is some continuity for them.”

Mr Durkan said he was hoping to have his Leinster House office cleared out this week and would “look around and see what happens next”.

Sinn Féin’s Martin Browne, who was unsuccessful for the party in Tipperary South, was a local councillor before being elected four years ago.

“I’m taking two weeks out to be with family,” he said. “I’ve been involved since 1980 and 2012 as a public representative and we’ve missed a lot of family [occasions] and that, so they deserve a couple of weeks. Long term, I don’t know, we’ll sit down as a family and decide then whether I will just stay as a local Sinn Féin activist or maybe try to win back a seat.”

Sarah Burns

Sarah Burns

Sarah Burns is a reporter for The Irish Times