Almost 100 Oireachtas members who resigned their local authority seats, qualified for a €5,000 payment for doing so.
The 96 TDs and senators qualified for the payment by resigning from their local authority between May 4th and September 30th this year, to comply with the Local Government Act which brings an end to the dual mandate.
The Minister for the Environment and Local Government, Mr Cullen, told the Mayo Fine Gael TD, Mr Michael Ring, in a written reply to a parliamentary question that the payment to the 96 Oireachtas members will cost the Exchequer an estimated €0.48 million.
Mr Ring is challenging the legality of the Local Government (No. 2) Act of 2003, in the High Court and a date has been set for January for the hearing. Mr Ring has not resigned his Mayo County Council seat.
Cabinet Ministers and Ministers of State are already excluded by law from holding a local authority seat and this has now been extended to all Oireachtas members in the Local Government Act.
The Mayo TD had asked the cost to the State of the resignation or retirement of Oireachtas members from county, urban and town councils.
The 66 TDs and 30 senators from Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Labour, the Progressive Democrats, the Socialist Party, Sinn Féin as well as Independent TDs receive the €5,000 "in recognition of their departure from local government". Green Party TDs gave up their council seats on election to the Dáil in the general election in May last year. The party's TD for Mid-West, Mr Paul Gogarty, had called for the €5,000 not to be paid to TDs giving up their council seats, but said that if the Minister was going to go ahead with the gratuity, Green Party deputies should also receive it.
A number of TDs and senators have co-opted relatives and friends to the council to build a base before next June's local elections, but final party nominations are expected to be concluded in January.
