Councillors across the State have become eligible to receive up to €11,000 annually in payment for official work.
The so-called "representational payments" are part of new regulations introduced by the Local Government Act 2001, which came into force on January 1st.
Some representatives are expected to claim up the €16,500 in back pay as they are entitled to claim from May 2000, when the Local Government Bill was published.
Minister for Environment Mr Noel Dempsey has said the payments are not meant as a salary but as a recognition of the work that councillors volunteer to undertake.
Under the new regulations county and city council members can claim an annual payment of €11,000; borough council members can claim €5,500.
Town councillors and some larger town commissioners will receive €2,750 while smaller commissioners will get €1,500.
Mr Dempsey said last December that he had secured extra funding in the supplementary estimate for his department for the local government fund so that "it could be fairly said that the money being provided for the payment would be taken from essential services provided by the councils".
A spokesman for the Department of Environment told ireland.comtoday councillors could expect to be paid next month. He said it was up to each authority to work out the administrative arrangements for payment especially in the cases of back-dated lump sums.
