Ex-TD who retired due to illness gets plum pension early
A FINE GAEL politician who publicly vowed he would not draw down a pension before reaching retirement age has been granted a €500,000 early retirement pension pot, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal.
The MoS previously revealed that former Galway West TD Brian Walsh, 43, was seeking to double his monthly pension to €1,800 and get an exemption due to ill health that would allow him to draw it now – instead of waiting until he is 66.
He resigned his seat in the constituency three weeks before the General Election, having previously said that he would not contest the election due to ill health.
When initially questioned in November on Galway Bay FM radio about his decision not to continue with a career in national politics, the then Fine Gael TD insisted that he would not be receiving a pension until he was 66.
However, a month later he applied to the Oireachtas for early retirement on grounds of ill health. In docu- ments seen by the MoS, Mr Walsh claimed to have diverticulitis – an inflammation of the intestine – which is not typically considered to be a serious disease.
But this weekend Mr Walsh told the MoS that he has a number of serious medical conditions and that unlike others, who can avail of surgery, he cannot get surgery to improve his health.
The Oireachtas this week refused to say if the early retirement on grounds of ill health pension had been granted. But a source this weekend confirmed that it had.
Ordinarily, the former TD would be entitled to a pension at 66 years of age, calculated on the basis of his service. As he has served five years, this would amount to around €900 a month.
Under the early retirement scheme, as well as getting his pension 23 years early, he has been credited with ‘notional service’. This is based on the assumption that, but for his retirement due to illness, he would have won at least one more election. As a result, he will receive 10 years’ service – that’s around €1,800 month. Over 23 years this amounts to a pension fund worth about €500,000.
He has been credited with ‘notional service’