New TD Catherine Connolly gets ‘golden handshake’

Galway West TD, Catherine Connolly, earned in excess of €53,000 in severance from Galway City Council when she was elected to Dáil Éireann in February.

The Independent Deputy was one of four politicians, who were paid a combined €150,000 in severance by the local authority in 2014 and 2016.

The data was released to the Galway City Tribune under the Freedom of Information Act.

The figures reveal that Deputy Connolly received €55,558.63 from the City Council upon her election to the Dáil earlier this year.

Meanwhile, her sister, Collette Connolly, was paid some €33,225.67 in 2014 when she lost her City Council seat in that year’s local elections, while representing the Labour Party.

Colette Connolly has since been co-opted onto the Council as an independent to replace her sister Catherine who is in the Dáil.

Tom Costello, the former Labour Party city councillor, earned a severance of €53,459.40 in 2014 from the City Council when he retired from politics and decided not to contest that year’s local election.

The payments are in lieu of pensions, which city and county councillors do not get.

For more on this story, see this week’s Galway City Tribune