Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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64. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government to calculate the amount payable to a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26436/24]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Regulations for a new gratuity scheme for local authority members have recently been published under S.I. No. 276 of 2024. Related guidance has been issued to local authority staff and serving members.

The Regulations, which commenced on 14 June 2014, provide that where an elected member of a local authority ceases to hold office and has at least two years' qualifying service having –

(a) reached the age of 50 years, or(b) become incapable of performing his or her duties as a member due to permanent infirmity of mind or body, or(c) died in office,

they will qualify for a gratuity. In the case of (c) above, the member’s legal personal representative will be granted the gratuity.

The Regulations further provide that, where a member has not reached the age of 50 on retirement, their gratuity will be preserved until they have reached that age; their gratuity will then be calculated with reference to the current rate of remuneration rate at that point. This applies to all former councillors who, at the time of the new Regulations' commencement, have not yet reached the age of 50 or otherwise received a gratuity under (b) or (c) above.

Gratuities are calculated on the basis of the following formula:

A x B x 3 20

where A is the applicable annual remuneration rate payable on the date the elected member ceased to be a member or, in the case of a preserved gratuity, the date on which the former member reaches the age of 50, and B is the number of years of his or her gratuity service.

My Department is not in a position to determine the calculation of a gratuity for any one individual as gratuity service is calculated down to the number of days' service given; individual members (or former members) should therefore engage with their local authority to determine their actual gratuity service and the gratuity payable in their individual case.