This article is from page 69 of the 2008-12-09 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 69 JPG
A FUND of €250,000 is being set aside for members of Clare County Council who fail to get re-elected in next June’s local elections.
A number of long-serving council- lors are in line for a ‘golden hand- shake’ of around €35,000 if they don’t get re-elected next year.
The bumper pay-off is revealed in the council’s draft budget for 2009 where County Manager, Alec Flem- ing has provided the €250,000 fund of ‘retirement gratuities’ for council- Keyace
The fund puts an additional finan- cial burden on the council at a time when it is letting temporary staff go, cutting back on community grants and increasing rates on businesses throughout Clare.
Councilllors such as Cllr Christy Curtin (Ind) and Cllr PJ Kelly CFF) with more than 20 years experience could receive around €35,000 each if they are not re-elected in next June’s local elections.
The two — who will be scrapping for one of the six seats in the down- sized Kilrush electoral area — said they have no aspiration to avail of the pay-off next year.
The membership of the council has a high attrition rate and in the 2004 local elections, ten of the 32 council- lors didn’t make a return.
Cllr PJ Kelly said: “The casualty rate has been high each time since I was elected. When I was first elected in 1974, there were 13 casualties. The manager must not be expecting a good number of us back.”
Cllr Curtin said that the fund “‘is
miniscule when set against the coun- cil budget of €118 million”.
Former Clare mayor, Cllr Patricia McCarthy (Ind) said the Council 1s obliged to make provision for the payments.
Cllr PJ Kelly said: “I didn’t become a councillor in 1974 for the expenses. The only expense then was £5.22 a month. The gratuity payments have been paid agreed by the minister and I’m sure that no councillor has retire- ment is mind who is going for elec- tion next year.”
Cllr Christy Curtin (Ind) said the payments are “recognition for long service from long serving mem- bers. It will be the people in the final analysis who will judge if council- lors are worth it. With the local elec- tions coming up, everything is up for analysis.”