Councillors who are members of the Oireachtas and who may retire within the period 4 May to 30 September 2003 will receive an additional gratuity of €5,000 in recognition of their departure from local government together with the early payment of the normal retirement gratuity which is available to all councillors, based on potential service up to next June. The cost of the former gratuity is about €0.6 million and of the latter about €1 million if all Oireachtas councillors were to retire within the period mentioned. Assuming that they were then all replaced by new councillors a further amount of up to €1.6 million in a full year could arise in respect of representational payments to these.
However, the costs involved are likely to be somewhat less as they are dependent on the number of Oireachtas councillors who choose to resign before the next local elections, the dates of resignation chosen by such individuals and the requirement for a minimum period of three years qualifying service for a gratuity.