PAYMENTS:MEMBERS OF the Fianna Fáil and Green Party coalition received average severance payments of €27,473 upon leaving office last year.
Only three of the 40 individuals entitled to the payments decided to forgo them – former Fianna Fáil ministers Micheál Martin, Éamon Ó Cuív and Brendan Smith.
The bill for the total severance payments package came to €945,420, once the entitlements of the three former ministers are stripped out.
Of those who took severance payments, by far the largest sum was paid to the former attorney general, Paul Gallagher. He received €99,442.
Former tánaiste Mary Coughlan received the second-largest payment at €54,451.
The list does not include any payment to former taoiseach Brian Cowen.
It is understood that it was more financially beneficial for him to go straight to pension.
Three other members of the outgoing cabinet received severance payments in excess of €50,000 – former Green Party leader John Gormley, Fianna Fáil’s Batt O’Keeffe and the current leader of the Greens, Eamon Ryan.
Forty-two former members of government were entitled to receive severance payments following the ousting of the coalition at the last election.
Brian Lenihan, minister for finance towards the end of the government’s period in office, received severance of €16,921, while his brother Conor, a junior minister, was paid €24,206.
The figures paid to other leading and long-serving Fianna Fáil members of the coalition included: Dermot Ahern (€5,095); Noel Dempsey (€4,746); Mary Hanafin (€40,939); Martin Mansergh (€24,206); Willie O’Dea (€8,064); John O’Donoghue (€14,374); and Dick Roche (€46,034).
