John Paul Phelan (Fine Gael)

I wish to raise the issue of pensions or, at least, enhanced gratuity payments for retired members of local authorities. I think the Minister of State may have been a member of a local authority. I was as were Senator Bradford and the Acting Chairman, Senator Moylan. I do not think I am eligible for a gratuity or a pension, however.

We are all familiar with people who have given years of service to local authorities around the country yet at the end of their time in politics leave without acknowledgement of the years of effort they have put in. I am reminded of a former colleague of mine on Kilkenny County Council who lost his seat in the last local election. He had been a councillor for 25 years. His wife told me that her husband had worked as a member of a local authority for 22 years without payment. He received payment for the last three years under the allowance system that was introduced. However, that man is in his 60s and will receive no financial acknowledgement in future for the effort he put in. There are many like him around the country and this is unfair.

Under the current system of payment, local authority members receive around €15,000 or €16,000 per year. This does not allow for the payment of the correct category of stamp that would entitle them to full pension rights upon retirement and this is the difficulty. Having spoken to a number of local authority members recently there seems to a general opinion that the Government is to make an announcement on this issue in the next couple of weeks, which is, primarily, why I put down this motion.

I would like to know how the Government sees this issue. There are many who believe there should be an enhanced gratuity payment for local authority members when they retire or lose their seats. That might be a better mechanism. I am not sure which method is best but I believe it is firmly wrong that one can give so much of a life to such an all-consuming job and not be entitled to some sort of pension. Being a local councillor is a full-time job nowadays. I hope the Government will look favourably on extending pension rights to retired local authority members.