Michael McCarthy (Cork South West, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

159. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will clarify exactly the treatment of retirement gratuities in the case of an incumbent town councillor who seeks re-election; the situation thereafter if said incumbent is successful or fails to be re-elected. [8644/14]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Section 142 of the Local Government Act 2001 and the Local Authority Members (Gratuity) Regulations 2002 to 2006 provide that, subject to certain conditions, a councillor who ceases to be a member of a local authority is entitled to receive a gratuity at, or after, the age of 50. Where a person ceases to be a member before age 50, whether voluntarily or as a result of failure to be re-elected, the gratuity will be paid when the person reaches age 50 and will be based on the representational payment applicable at that point. The Local Authority Members (Gratuity) (Amendment) Regulations 2006 provide for the gratuity to be paid before age 50 where retirement is due to permanent infirmity or where the member dies in office. The amount of the gratuity is calculated on the basis of 4/20ths of a Councillor’s Representational Payment for each year of service from 4 May 2000, subject to a maximum twenty years’ service (i.e. four times the amount of the Representational Payment at the time of retirement).

An additional ex-gratia payment may be made to Councillors serving on or after the date of the making of the 2006 Regulations in respect of service before 4 May 2000. The rates to be applied are dependent on the number of years’ service and the category of local authority in which the Councillor served. Circular Letter S.3/2007 of 22 January 2007, issued by my Department, set the rate of payment of the ex-gratia payment at €714.23 for each year of service up to 20 years’ service with a County Council or what was at the time a County Borough Corporation, at ½ this rate for service with what was at the time a Borough Corporation or an Urban District Council, and at ¼ this rate for service as a Town Commissioner. For service in excess of 20 years prior to 4 May 2000, the foregoing rates are reduced by 1/3rd for each additional year of service up to a further 20 years. However, where a person was a member of more than one local authority (e.g. a county council and an urban district council), at the one time, only one of those periods may be reckoned in calculating the ex-gratia payment and that will be in respect of the membership which is most favourable.

There is an overall limit of 40 years’ service for the gratuity and ex-gratia payment combined, with the service reckoned for the purposes of a gratuity calculated first and the residual number of years being used to calculate any ex-gratia payment. Where an outgoing councillor seeks election to a County Council and is successful, service as a county or town councillor is held on record for calculating the gratuity when that elected member retires or fails to be re-elected at a later stage. Where an outgoing councillor, including a town councillor, seeks but is not successful in being elected to a county or city or city and county council, a gratuity will be payable in accordance with the arrangements set out above.