Former county councillors get €350k post election pay out
Westmeath County Council have paid €350,000 to 13 individuals whose political careers came to a halt following May’s local elections.
Four of the 13 (Tom Allen, Denis Leonard, Detty Cornally and Ger Corcoran), who have shared in the severance payments pot of €346,122, lost their seats on Westmeath County Council; three (Fintan Cooney, Joe Flanagan, Mark Cooney) retired from the council, while a further six (Bill Collentine, Gerry Sheridan, Pat Collins and Ruth Illingworth (Mullingar); Jim Henson and Kieran Molloy (Athlone) fell victim to the abolition of town councils.
Fine Gael’s Joe Flanagan, who retired from public life after more than three decades as a county councillor, received a severance payment of €61,787. The Moyvoughley man’s payment is the biggest in the county and one of the biggest in the country.
Tom Allen (FF) from Moate and Glasson’s Mark Cooney (FG) are next on the severance payments table, each receiving €47,702. Country and western singer Allen, who is better known as TR Dallas, lost his seat to independent, Michael O’Brien, while solicitor Cooney stepped down after 15 years as a county councillor. He had previously served on Athlone Town Council for five years.
Athlone’s town councillor Kieran Molloy (FF), who also served on Westmeath County Council, received €46,441, while Detty Cornally, who was the only member of Mullingar Town Council with a dual mandate to lose their county council seat, received a payment of €37,787. Another two of Labour’s county council election casualties, Ger Corcoran and Denis Leonard, received €19,230 and €16,630 respectively.
In total six of the 13 political figures received payments of more than €30,000, with Fintan Cooney (FG) set to receive €33,232. Of the four members of Mullingar Town Council whose political careers came to an end following its abolition, Labour’s Pat Collins, who had the honour of being the last cathaoirleach, received the highest payout (€12,835), followed by Fine Gael’s Ruth Illingworth (€6,147).
Fianna Fáil’s Bill Collentine and Labour’s Gerry Sheridan both received €4,157. In addition to the lucky 13, five former representatives have not received their severance payments yet.
The quintet includes Deputy Gabrielle McFadden (€16,556), who was elected to the Dáil in the May 23 by-election brought about by the untimely death of her sister Nicky, and her former county council colleagues Colm Arthur (FG, €16, 630) and Peter Keaney (Lab, €7,564) as
well as former Athlone town councillors Alan Shaw and Sheila Buckley Byrne (both €8,315).
If a county councillor served a full five year term, their severance payment was €16,724, the same as one year's representational payment. If they served two full terms, they received the equivalent of two years' representational payment. After this the payments went up incrementally with highest possible payment being €63,968 for representatives that served 40 years or more.