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FORMER JUNIOR MINISTER Róisín Shortall has waived her entitlement to over €33,000 in severance pay following her resignation as the Minister for State in charge of primary care.
Shortall quit in September amid disputes with senior minister James Reilly over the allocation of primary care centres – but was not entitled to any kind of ministerial pension because she had not served in office for more than two years.
In lieu of this, Shortall was entitled to about €33,100 in severance pay, to be paid incrementally until April 2014 – but the former Labour TD has said she is not accepting any payments.
“I actually instructed officials not to pay me this money,” Shortall told TheJournal.ie.
The Dublin North-West TD sits as an independent in the Dáil after resigning her membership of the Labour parliamentary party alongside her resignation as a junior minister.
Laws governing the payment of pensions and severance pay to former ministers, enacted in 2001, outlined that Shortall would be entitled to receive 75 per cent of her ministerial salary for the first six months after she had left.
This would mean six monthly payments of €2,336, which amounts to three-quarters of the monthly €3,114 salary that junior ministers receive on top of their TDs’ wage of €92,672.
Because Shortall had served for 19 months, she would also be entitled to another twelve months of payments worth €1,557 and a single payment of €409 in April 2013.
Shortall’s successor as the Minister of State responsible for Primary Care, Alex White, was in line for a pay increase of €27,870 when he stepped up to fill Shortall’s role.
Though White was entitled to the full €37,370 salary, his promotion meant he had to give up a role as chairman of the Oireachtas finance committee, which brought with it an annual allowance of €9,500.
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One of the only politicians with some integrity and she had to quit. What does that say?
Can’t fault her for turning down the money, but how can someone be entitled to compensation because they quit? FFS, this country is completely crazy. There’s no end to free money if you’re a politician in Ireland. The biggest irony is that, we the people think its ok.
Rodrigo. We the people DON’T think it’s ok. We are horrified by the endless amounts of free money the politicians pay themselves. There is nothing we can do about it. We voted this bunch in because the promised change but once in power greed took over as it will for every politician. Bring on the revolution !
The only revolution you’ll see in modern Ireland is the big wheel at Funderland
The FG manifesto promised to end these severance payments. They lied. Again. And somebody tell me: why do government TDs get extra payments to head up committees? Is this not part of their job? To govern?
Bisto land
Principled a rare thing in Irish politic,s are you listening Mr Gilmore
Well done to Roisin! She can hold her head high. It’s too much to get anyway. Joe Public gets 2 weeks per year capped in the 100′s and nothing if they resign.
Shortall voted with the government against Clare Daly’s bill three nights ago. She is a Labor back-bencher despite resigning.
Since she doesn’t answer to a party whip she can vote how she likes and voted no. What’s the problem!?
a rare thing a politician with a conscience
I Gave her my first preference and I’d give it to her again tomo if she runs as an independent in Dublin north west.
Fair play to her, however, it just shows the money these guys are on when she can just say no to 33k! Thats more than my salary.
Even if I wanted to say no to that out of principle, I simply couldn’t have no job/no cash or I would die of starvation. Not the case for these people.
She’s after the top job in Labour, she may be principled but why doesn’t she go another step and say. I am being paid too much, perks are too high and really kick these guys in the teeth!
Good for her but isn’t it sickening that they all are entitled to a pension after 2 years! The law makers are the law breakers….
Roisin is a rare breed of people that have princibles and not afraid to stand up for them.
I don’t think we have seen her best yet.
Let’s hope this is not the last we see of roisin shorthall , we desperately need a few more principled politicians in this fine country of ours .
How to get rid of the corrupts though ?
That’s an easy one, get rid of FFG, FF, Labour. Then bring I’m similar laws to that of Germany stating that ours against the law to vote against conscience. bring in mechanisms that allow constituents to recall an election if they find that their local TD breaks any moral codes.
A woman of integrity. Fair play Roísin.
A person of her caliber and integrity should be running the labour party. I’d stick with voting labour if that was the case, but alas Gilmore and his fellow smoked salmon socialists sold them out.
Just to add, the fact she was thrown under a bus for a morally bankrupt and unapologetic stroke merchant like reilly just compounds the situation.
Roisin….REAL Labour.
Real Labour is dead and gone, its with OLeary in the grave.
As mentioned above,the sheer fact this woman can turn her nose up at 33k like this only serves to highlight the shameful wages these lot are paid.she must have herself a right little nest egg to be in a position to turn that down.or is there an ulterior motive?gain some brownie points with the public and be elected in a more prominent position in the future.I find trust and admiration a hard thing to muster up where Irish politics is concerned.
David, how can you change a decent Politicians stance and principle on not accepting a payment to
” turning up her nose to it ” ? Yes you do seem to be looking on the dark side all right .
Totally admire the lady for standing by her principles. The way she was treated after her resignation just goes to show how self centred and back stabbing politicians are.
Its a terrible terrible shame more of our ‘elected elite’ cant be as strong willed!
The fact is , she turned it down weather she could afford to or not , chances are she probably didn’t need it but it great to see that, she is showing up the past Ministers and TD’s who are gone , drawing down massive pensions and on top of that getting paid €100,000 plus to sit on the board of a company and do the same as they did while elected S.F.A. I would love to say that the €33,000 would now go to some good use but in fact it will probably just be used to cover a lavish Christmas Lunch laid on now by kenny, Gilmore and Co .
There are so many different payments and entitlements in leinster house that the public aren’t aware of because governments over the years have voted them in. There is no way to get rid because the rules benefit those in power, why would they abolish them. It’s like Turkeys voting for Christmas!
Shortall voted with the Government on rejecting Ms. Daly’s bill three nights ago. I don’t buy this latest smoke and mirrors.
Gary, some TDs while principled, are also against allowing women to choose. So, Rosin may be principled, but not every one of her view points suit everyone. She is still pudding to set the min price for a can of beer at 2?. I don’t support that view either, but st least with rosin, you know if she says something, she means it.
A Politician with Integrity & Honesty & because of these traits She was the one who left & Dr Death still in office very poor reflection on public office in Our condemned Country. Well done Roisin.
we need to change how we pay our ministers etc . it seem to me that thy have no morals how can thy pay. them self so much and at the same time squeeze the life out of. us. . the phrase LET THEM EAT. CAKE springs to mind.
Sadly knowing the voting public, if she runs as an independent against a Labour candidate in the next election, they will both lose out. A politician with integrity is something we need more of in government and yet she is forced to the outside.
No way out for the Irish. It is becoming a place where the American government are. As much as i would love to see Roisin Shorthall and Trevor Sergent leading our country the people will never speak loud enough.
Fair play to her
This whole comment thread just stinks of pure jealousy…
I get a sense of anger more than jealousy Andrew. Anger from all of people out of work who cant afford to live, the people who have jobs but are just scraping by because of a mortgage hanging around their neck like a noose (a simile that’s unfortunately apt considering those the rising suicide rate due to financial worries ). If you see jealousy in the comment thread then you must be in a well paid job with an oversized sense of entitlement just like most of these politicians.
Nice gesture. Id wish some of ye lived in her constituency, you would see how very little she actually does.
What does she want ? a medal ? …. She didn’t earn it . I was ill health retired , but my pension only reflects what I worked. So why shoul;d she be different ?
Two things. A brave and principled sand would have been to stay on and fight it out. Leaving and getting a load of public kudos for handing in a letter of resignation is an easier option and enormously boosted her personal profile with the electorate. This gesture has boosted it even further, so it’s not as selfless as it seems.
Secondly many people are forgetting that she stood for some of the worst types of nanny statism, even more so than labour in general.
politicians are good!
politicians are bad!
some politicians are bad and some politicians are good.
we still havn’t seen which criteria shorthall used for the pcc’s though
have your say