JUSTICE Minister Dermot Ahern will be able to retire with a total package worth €308,000 — thanks to a law introduced by former finance minister Charlie McCreevy.
His annual pension of €129,000 alone will be worth more than the basic €92,672 salary to which he would have been entitled if elected as a backbench opposition TD at the next General Election.
Mr Ahern (55) is expected to receive a ministerial pension worth almost €75,000 per year; a TD’s pension worth around €54,000 per year; a pension lump sum of around €162,000 and a termination lump sum of approximately €17,000.
The total package is worth around €308,000 over the next year.
“I’ve no practice to go back to. I didn’t go into politics for the money,” he said
Startling fact: If Mr Ahern had been forced into opposition after the next election, he would only have been entitled to a basic TD’s salary because long-service payments are to be abolished.
Oh honourable gent, your embrace of the golden years will not go unrewarded.
Golden Goodbye As Ahern Quits The Dail (irish Independent)