More than half a million euro for former Galway politicians

Galway Bay fm newsroom – Galway City and County councils will pay more than 500 thousand euro to 29 former county, city and town councillors who retired or lost their seats in the local elections.
According to today’s Irish Times, almost 420 thousand euro will be paid by the County council while, the City council will pay out almost 100 thousand euro.
Former City Councillor, Tom Costello, who retired receives a payment of just over 53 thousand euro.
His Labour colleagues, Colette Connolly and Nuala Nolan, who lost their seats in the last election will receive 33 thousand 200 and 10 thousand 600 respectively.
In the County council the biggest payments of almost 58 thousand euro go to retired councillors Tiernan Walsh and Jarlath McDonagh.
Tomás Mannion, who also retired, will receive 47 thousand 700 euro.
A figure of 33 thousand 200 euro each goes to Seosamh O’ Cuaig who retired and Bridie Willers who lost her seat at the last election.
16 thousand 600 euro goes to Liam Carroll who lost his seat and a further 10 thousand 700 euro each for Kevin Ryan and Seosamh O Laoi who also lost their County council seats.
Former Town councillors also benefit from severance payments, now that the councils have been abolished.
In Ballinasloe, the biggest sum goes to Pat O’ Sullivan who will get 22 thousand 100, as he also served for a time on the County council.
Almost 12 thousand euro each will go to Johnny Walsh, Carmel Greally and Lucy Lloyd Keighery.
Staying with Ballinasloe and Michael Kelly will receive just over 8 thousand while 4 thousand 100 euro will be given to Aidan McGrath and Jerry Broderick.
The biggest allocation to former Tuam town councillors is 24 thousand 100 euro for Tom Reilly, who also served for a time on the County council.
Just over 2 thousand 200 euro each will go to Mary Loftus, Eamon Kitt and Larry Bane.
Paul O’ Grady will get 13 hundred euro while Pat O’ Hora will get 12 hundred.
In Loughrea, the former town councillor getting the biggest payment is Norman Morgan who will receive almost 12 thousand euro as he also served for a time on the County council.
Gabriel Burke will get 8 thousand 100 euro while the remaining former councillors, Jimmy Curley, Mary Gunther Nix and James Regan will receive just over 7 thousand 400 euro.