Anger as ‘privacy rights’ mean pensions and lump sums of ex-TDs will no longer be public
DETAILS of the lump sums, pensions and termination pay for individual TDs and senators will no longer be made public following a decision by Oireachtas authorities.
The payments have been published by Leinster House for more than a decade without issue.
However, the Oireachtas has now decided that continued publication of the data would be a breach of the privacy of the former politicians.
It has decided that the public interest in having detailed figures available on how public money is spent does not outweigh “the privacy rights” of the individual TDs and senators involved.
The change follows a similar move by the Department of Finance, which has also ceased publication of pensions paid to former ministers, Taoisigh and presidents.
When that Department of Finance decision was originally made, the case was appealed to the Office of the Information Commissioner by transparency group Right to Know. The Information Commissioner in its final decision decided the details should not be made public, reversing more than a decade of transparency surrounding such payments.
The Oireachtas had continued publication of details of pensions and lump sums right up until March of this year.
However, when details of lump sums paid to former senators along with up to date figures on pension payments for 2019 were sought last month using the Freedom of Information Act, it halted that practice.
The decision letter said it would be refusing to provide a detailed breakdown of costs.
It said there would only be “aggregated” details of total amounts paid out to former TDs and senators.
These records show that there were 304 people in receipt of pension payments in March and that €838,710 was paid out in pensions that month.
In April, there were 306 former politicians in receipt of a pension and the total monthly bill had climbed to €900,881.
The Oireachtas said 47 former TDs and senators had been in receipt of termination payments or lump sums since the beginning of the year.
These termination payments and lump sums had cost €1.56m by May 18, according to the records.
No further detail of how much each individual received will be provided.
“It is clear from the [Information Commissioner] decision that it considers details of precise payments to former members to be personal information,” the Oireachtas said. “The public interest in ensuring transparency and accountability does not outweigh, in this instance, the privacy rights of the individual to whom the information relates.”
Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy called on the Oireachtas to reconsider the decision, saying: “It’s public money and as such I favour full transparency.”
Solicitor Fred Logue – who advised Right to Know on the original case – said: “This information is not personal information under the Freedom of Information Act and it has been published routinely for years. This decision is very concerning as it departs from a well-established practice.”