Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 21 February 2023
308. Deputy Ivana Bacik asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage further to Parliamentary Question No. 233 of 14 February 2023, if he has drafted new regulations on this matter to take account of remuneration changes; if he has consulted with the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform; his plans to introduce such regulations in 2023; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8470/23]
Amharc ar fhreagraMy Department is engaging with councillor representatives associations in relation to the current terms of the gratuity payable to councillors, which I acknowledge is a matter of considerable interest to them. I understand that an analysis of councillors' views and needs in this regard has been undertaken by the Association of Irish Local Government (AILG), which will be of assistance to my Department when completed.
As previously mentioned, the existing gratuity scheme provides for a maximum gratuity of €75,160 to a retiring member after 20 years in local government service. It is a non-contributory scheme which sets a minimum retirement age at 50 years.
The maximum gratuity is due to be increased by 2% from 1 March 2023 to match an increase due to the Senator’s salary, with which the Representational Payment is linked, from that same date as a result of the revised national pay agreement. Regulations are not needed to give effect to this increase, which will be notified by circular to local authorities.
On 1 July 2021 new regulations were given effect following a Government decision to implement the recommendations of the Report of the Independent Review of the Role and Remuneration of Elected Members, overseen by Sara Moorhead SC. This provided for the introduction of a new salary-type annual remuneration payment for councillors linked to a local authority employee payscale. The annual remuneration payment is currently worth €27,593 per annum. This is not linked to the calculation of the gratuity as the Government decision did not provide for this nor was any increase to the gratuity recommended by the Moorhead Report.
Any adjustment to the existing terms of the gratuity scheme would require new Regulations made with the consent of my colleague the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform. New regulations have not been drafted for my consideration.
It would be reasonable to expect that any proposal to further improve councillor retirement benefits would bring scrutiny of the existing terms.
