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Shortall won't get ministerial pension - but can receive €33,100 severance

Ministers aren’t allowed to receive both – but Róisín Shortall isn’t entitled to one, so she is entitled to the other.

Updated, 15:17

FORMER JUNIOR MINISTER Róisín Shortall is entitled to €33,100 in severance pay over the next 19 months after quitting her position as Minister of State earlier this week.

Shortall is not entitled to a ministerial pension, as she held her ministerial position for less than two years – but former office holders are not permitted to receive ministerial pensions and severance pay at the same time.

This means that the Dublin North-West TD is entitled to severance pay in respect of her year-and-a-half as a junior minister under James Reilly, a fraught tenure which ended on Wednesday.

Departing office-holders are entitled to severance pay for a period equal to the time they spent on office, subject to a cap of two years. This means Shortall, who was made a junior minister on March 10 last year, is entitled to about 19 months’ severance pay.

Legislation enacted in 2001 can see Shortall paid 75 per cent of her monthly ministerial salary for the first six months after her departure, 50 per cent each month for the following year, and 25 per cent for the fortnight-or-so thereafter.

19 months’ work, 19 months’ severance

With the salary for a Minister of State currently standing at €37,370, this means Shortall will receive €2,336 in severance each month until next March; €1,557 per month for the twelve months after that; and €409 in April 2013 when her severance ends.

All in all, Shortall is entitled to €33,108 over the next 19 months – as well as her Dáil salary of €92,672, which she will continue to receive for the duration for her stay in the Dáil. Any such severance pay is subject to income tax.

Her replacement as junior minister, Alex White, will meanwhile see his own pay increase by €27,870 when he is formally appointed following next Tuesday’s cabinet meeting.

White’s salary will increase by €37,370 in line with his new role – but serving ministers are expected to step down from any roles as chair of an Oireachtas committee.

The Dublin South deputy is the chairman of the Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform – a role for which he receives an annual allowance of €9,500. He will lose that allowance when he formally steps down as committee chairman in the coming weeks.

[Update, November 29: Shortall has contacted TheJournal.ie to outline that though she is entitled to the severance pay, she has opted against claiming it. We are happy to update and clarify this.]

Video: James Reilly explains his decision on primary care centres

More: Alex White to replace Shortall as junior health minister

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    Mute cutecatfunfact
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    Jul 5th 2015, 11:31 AM

    Hmmm Journal she doesn’t even speak one word and appears on screen for all of one second in Planes, Train and Automobiles !

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    Mute Mike McAllen
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    Jul 5th 2015, 11:35 AM

    Yes, I rather think the headline should be “Actress Diana Douglas of Kirk Douglas’s first wife fame…”

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    Mute Seosamh B
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    Jul 5th 2015, 11:50 AM

    An article on this but nothing on Nicholas Winton passing away earlier in the week??

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    Mute Vocal Outrage
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    Jul 5th 2015, 12:17 PM

    Yeah, because risking your life to single handedly save the lives of 669 Jewish children from certain death and then being so humble about it that your wife only discovers about it in a scrapbook in the attic nearly 50 years later doesn’t warrant mention.

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    Mute mr magoo
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    Jul 5th 2015, 12:04 PM

    Journal really scraping the barrel for stories. Tine to delete app maybe

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    Mute Brian Foley
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    Jul 5th 2015, 1:05 PM

    Married three times – to her second husband for thirty six years, still married to her third husband when she died, yet still goes by her famous first husbands surname! – way to inflict an inferiority complex!!!!!

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    Mute Karol Doran
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    Jul 5th 2015, 11:36 AM

    What character did she play in trains planes?

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    Mute cutecatfunfact
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    Jul 5th 2015, 11:37 AM

    She played Steve Martin’s mother or mother in law. You see her for a micro second at the end.

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    Mute Karol Doran
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    Jul 5th 2015, 11:53 AM

    No wonder i cant picture her in it.

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    Mute Pat O'Leary
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    Jul 5th 2015, 3:05 PM

    A pilot .

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    Mute Meehawwl O' Buachailla
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    Jul 5th 2015, 11:05 AM

    Gobble gobble!

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    Mute John Crehan
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    Jul 5th 2015, 2:39 PM

    Is the headline a joke

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    Mute Steve McMahon
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    Jul 6th 2015, 3:45 PM

    I thought michel Douglas was 92

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