THE FORMER SECRETARY general of the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation received a package worth €634,088 on his recent retirement.
Under the terms of the top-level appointments committee (TALC), outgoing secretary general Sean Gorman is entitled to a gross annual pension of €126,817.50.
The 59-year-old also received a gross severance gratuity of €126,817.50 and a lump sum payment of €380,452.50 on his retirement on 22 October.
The lump sum was taxed at a rate of 20 per cent on the excess above €200,000.
The details of his package were released after his successor was appointed. A statement from the department said Gorman had clocked up more than 41 years of service.
John Murphy took over the role today, becoming the first to sign up to a secretary general position without the pension perks that had previously come with the job.
Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin said last week that the TLAC terms that apply to secretaries general on retirement had been changed.
For all future appointments there will be no added years; no pension payable prior to the minimum pension age and no severance pay unless no alternative post has been offered or the person is not of minimum pension age.
In September, the former secretary general to the Taoiseach Dermot McCarthy retired at the age of 57 with a package worth €713,000.
In a statement at the time, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform said the Government was committed to ending such exceptionally generous pension regimes for those at the top of the public sector.
However, it added that it was not possible to change existing arrangements.
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