Investigates Political PensionsRETIRING TDS COULD cost the taxpayer at least €3.9 million in exit payments and pension costs in the 12 months after the Dáil is dissolved.
The Journal Investigates has calculated the potential value of termination payments and pension entitlements that could be due to each of the 29 current TDs who have stated that they will not be running in the upcoming election.
We reveal an estimate of how much each of those TDs could be paid in the year after the election takes place, and how much those who are not at retirement age may earn in the future.
Our sums show that the cost of paying former Oireachtas members could almost double in the year after the election is called.
Figures provided to our investigative unit under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act show that the State is already paying almost €4 million a year in pensions to around 120 TDs and Senators who’ve reached retirement age.
However, our calculations found that 29 departing TDs are in line for a possible €3.93 million in exit payments and pension entitlements before the end of 2025, if the election is called this year.
Those costs will rise even further if any additional TDs or Senators aren’t returned or announce that they won’t run again in the next election, which will take place before Christmas.
Furthermore, the number of departing TDs at retirement age this year means the annual cost of Oireachtas pensions will become around 20% higher than is currently the case.
The figure will increase by at least €764,000 annually by the end of next year, when nine more TDs of retirement age who won’t stand in the next election can claim their pensions.
As members of the Oireachtas, TDs and Senators are considered public servants and are therefore eligible for taxpayer-funded public sector pensions.
Unlike most other public sector jobs, politicians who serve in either house of the Oireachtas also have less job security because they can lose their seat after a general election, which could theoretically be called at any time.
In recognition of the precarious nature of their work, those who are not re-elected are eligible for exit payments in order to provide them with financial support as they transition to alternative forms of employment.
In order to keep the payment, TDs and senators must not become a member of the following Oireachtas, become an MEP, or be appointed by the Government to another full-time position.
TDs must serve in the Dáil for at least six months in order to qualify for exit payments, and will not receive them if they are at an age where they can draw a pension instead.
The value of exit payments and the number of them that TDs receive in the year after an election depends on how many years the individual TD has served in the Dáil.
All TDs who are eligible for exit payments and who have served for more than six months also receive an up-front lump sum worth two months’ of the salary they were paid when the election was called.
Of the 29 current TDs who have said they will not run in the next election, 20 are not at retirement age and are due to receive exit lump sums worth €18,946.50 each (before tax) when the Dáil is dissolved.
Those TDs will also receive monthly payments worth varying amounts in the year after the election is called.
This amounts to €7,105 a month for the first six months after they leave the Dáil, unless they are among a small cohort of TDs who are able to claim their pension early (more on that later).
After the first six months, some will also be entitled to a reduced payment of €4,737 a month for a period, depending on their time in office. Three TDs could receive this for five more months and the remaining 13 could get it for six months.
(All of our figures in this article are before tax and our calculations are rounded to the nearest whole number.)
The full amount each of the 20 TDs is eligble to be paid over these months is here:
This table can also be viewed here >>
The number of payments will increase even further should any other current TDs who are not at retirement age fail to retain their seats.
In previous years, there has also been controversy over a delay by one politician returning the payment after being appointed to other positions.
In 2017, The Journal revealed that a former Fine Gael senator had not fully repaid the large allowance amounting to over €30,904. The full amount was later repaid.
Nine of the current crop of TDs who are at retirement age qualify immediately for pensions, though they will not be able to receive exit payments as a result.
Retiring politicians who have served in the Dáil for at least two years are eligible for public sector pensions, which they are immediately able to draw if they have reached the retirement age of 66 when they leave the Dáil.
These payments are made monthly and depend on the length of service a TD or minister has given. However, there is no lump sum for ministerial positions, unlike TDs.
TDs also get an up-front pension lump sum upon retirement, which is equivalent to three times the value of their annual pension and is often worth in excess of €100,000.
The nine are: Fine Gael’s Richard Bruton, Charlie Flanagan, Michael Ring and David Stanton, Fergus O’Dowd; Fianna Fáil’s Eamon Ó Cuív; Labour’s Brendan Howlin; and Social Democrats TDs Catherine Murphy and Róisín Shortall.
Eight of those TDs are eligible for a retirement lump sum worth €170,519 and a TD’s pension worth €56,840 a year.
The exception is Catherine Murphy, who our calculations indicate will receive lesser amounts because she has only been a TD for 15 out of the 19 years, since 2005. Her estimated lump sum could be worth €127,889, while her annual TD’s pension will be worth €42,630 a year.
There is another cohort of departing TDs who may also be eligible to receive pensions as soon as the Dáil is dissolved, despite not yet reaching the age of 66.
Anyone who was elected to the Dáil before 1 April 2004 can qualify for a lump sum and pension from the age of 50 (compared to TDs who are elected after that date, who must reach the age of 66 before they’re eligible for the same entitlements).
Out of the TDs who are set to leave politics, the following group will be immediately eligible to claim their pension once the Dáil dissolves, despite being below the age of 66:
Fine Gael’s Simon Coveney, Michael Creed, Joe McHugh and Paul Kehoe; Fianna Fáil’s Sean Haughey and Marc MacSharry; the Green Party’s Eamon Ryan; and Independent Denis Naughten.
Most of these TDs would also be eligible for the maximum lump sum of €170,519 and pension worth €71,050 a year – aside from Eamon Ryan, who has only served as a TD for 17 years and whose lump sum would consequently be worth €144,941 and whose TD’s pension would be worth €48,314 annually.
On top of this, politicians who serve as Ministers, Ministers of State, Chief Whips or in other positions like the Ceann Comhairle are entitled to an additional pension that is paid on top of their Oireachtas pension for their service as a TD or Senator.
However, no lump sum is paid for these so-called Officeholder positions.
In total, 11 former or outgoing ministers and nine junior ministers will be eligible to receive these additional pensions – as well as former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and former Tánaiste Simon Coveney (who also held ministerial positions).
The former ministers will receive annual pensions estimated to range from €18,388 (Naughten) to €55,763 (Bruton, Ó Cuív and Howlin). The former junior ministers annual payments are likely, on our calculations, to range from €11,462 (Phelan and O’Dowd) to €25,215 (English and Kehoe).
The amounts that are paid under these ministerial pensions increase even further when a politician holds a more senior role like Taoiseach or Tánaiste.
If a person holds the office of Taoiseach after being a minister, their years as a minister are counted at the same rate they were paid as Taoiseach for pension purposes.
Leo Varadkar, who served seven years as Taoiseach, is therefore eligible for an annual additional ministerial pension worth the top rate of €78,130 because he also served as a minister for 12 years.
Likewise, Simon Coveney’s three years as Tánaiste is reckonable at the full rate because he also served as a minister for 14 years, meaning he is in line for an annual additional pension worth €66,777.
If a person was both a minister and a junior minister, the latter role is counted at half the full rate, so two years as a minister of state is only worth one year’s pension as a minister.
To claim a ministerial pension, TDs must have served in the role for at least two years.
This disqualifies outgoing Social Democrats TD Róisín Shortall from claiming a ministerial pension, despite her time as Minister for Health as a Labour TD, because she was only in the role from 2011 to 2012. It also disqualifies Independent TD Joe McHugh who served as Minister for Department of Education and Skills for 15 months.
When someone in receipt of a pension dies, their surviving spouse (if they have one) is paid their pension at half the rate at which the TD received it.
A full version of this table can be viewed here >>
Until 2017, the value of pensions and exit payments made to individual named politicians were routinely published by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (which manages payments to former politicians).
The department now releases the total pension cost of former Oireachtas members, broken down by bands from less than €25,000 per year to over €74,000.
The Journal Investigates requested and received pension figures from DPER for the past three years.
They revealed that gross pension payments fell from €4.14 million in 2021 to just over €4 million in 2022, before falling to €3.9 million last year. This was because nine people who were paid pensions in 2021 were no longer receiving those pensions in 2023.
When a politician retires from the Dáil or is not re-elected, but they are not yet at an age where they can draw a pension, they are entitled to an up-front lump sum if they have been a TD for more than six months.
The up-front lump sum is worth two months’ of the salary they were paid when the election was called, currently worth €18,947 before tax.
If the TD has served for at least three years, they are also entitled to a certain number of monthly exit payments, depending on how long they’ve been a TD.
If a TD has served for three years, they get one monthly payment; if they have served for four years, they get two monthly payments; if they have served for five years, they get three monthly payments.
The amounts increase until a TD reaches 14 years’ service or more, in which case they get 12 monthly exit payments (which is the maximum number anyone can receive).
The value of these monthly payments differs between the first six months and from the seventh month onwards.
Each of the exit payments in the first six months is paid at 75% of the TD’s salary when they left the Dáil, regardless of how long the TD served; this is currently worth €7,104.94 a month before tax.
However, from the seventh month onward, exit payments are paid at a rate of 50% of the TD’s salary when they left the Dáil; this is currently worth €4,736.63 per month before tax.
When it comes to pensions, the amounts payable to TDs are calculated differently and depend on when a TD was first elected.
For TDs who were elected before 2013, their annual pension amounts are calculated as 1/40th (2.5%) of their salary the year they leave the Dáil, multiplied by the number of years they served in either house of the Oireachtas.
The current minimum pension payment (for serving for only two years) is €473.66 per month or €5,683.95 annually, while the current max is €4,736.63 a month or €56,839.50 annually.
The payment value maxes out at 20 years’ service which equates to half of their salary.
Those elected from 2013 onwards are subject to a different rate.
They are part of what is known as the Single Public Service Pension Scheme, which calculates pension rates based on a person’s average salary over the course of their career, rather than being based on their salary when they retire.
In all cases, retiring TDs are entitled to a one-off pension lump sum that is worth three times their annual pension.
Pensions for ministers – known as Officeholder pensions – are calculated based on two separate categories: ‘Ministerial’ rates for Taoisigh, Tánaistí, Ministers and Cinn Comhairligh; and ‘Secretarial’ rates for Ministers of State and Leas Chinn Comhairligh.
These pensions are paid on top of TDs’ pensions, so those who receive them are paid two pensions (but must also have served in their role for at least two years to get both).
Like TDs, the rate of an Officeholder’s pension is calculated as a percentage of their salary based on the amount of time they’ve served in their role.
If a person served in the role for two years, the pension paid is equivalent to 20% of the Officeholder’s salary for the position they held when they leave the Dáil.
It then goes up five percentage points for every additional year, up to a maximum of 60% for ten years’ service in that role.
If a person who was formerly a Minister serves as Taoiseach or Tánaiste for at least two years, then all of the years they served as Minister are paid at the rate they were paid as Taoiseach or Tánaiste.
For example, if someone served as Taoiseach for four years and as a Minister for six years, they would be counted as having served as Taoiseach for ten years and eligible for a pension at the rate of 60% of the Taoiseach’s salary.
For secretarial and Minister of State roles are counted as half.
If someone served as a senior Minister for two years and as a Minister of State for two years, then this would be counted as three years and would receive an annual pension worth 25% of a Minister’s salary.
Reporter: Stephen McDermott • Editor & Graphics: Maria Delaney • Main Image Design: Lorcan O’Reilly • Social Media: Sadbh Cox
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