Work pressure blamed as one third of councillors quit

Almost one third of the members of Dublin City Council have vacated their seats, many of them citing pressures of the job, since the last elections in 2004, it has emerged.

Sixteen of the 52-member authority have resigned, giving up their annual stipends of €16,756 and their €8,406.71 in non-taxable expenses for attendance at meetings.

The also forgo the opportunity to achieve an additional non- taxable €6,000 for chairing a strategic policy committee, €600 towards mobile phone bills, and a standard mileage allowance for travelling to conferences.

They will also forgo about €55,000 which they would have received should they be elected Lord Mayor.

Retirement gratuities depend on years of service and are complex to calculate.

A councillor elected in 2004 would this year be entitled to claim four tenths of an annual stipend, per year of service.

For the four years on Dublin City Council this would amount to €26,809.60.

While the amounts claimed by local authority members vary throughout the State, there have been newspaper reports of rural councillors taking home sums of about €75,000 per annum when all allowances and expenses are calculated.

Most councillors would argue, however, that such high earners are in the minority.

The numbers retiring from Dublin City Council would certainly appear to suggest that the rewards are not commensurate with the workload.

In the current council, three members have even quit from the same seat with Councillor Gary Keegan being first replaced by Chris Andrews who was in turn replaced by Deirdre Keane.

The council confirmed last night that Councillor Keane's notification of resignation had now been received.

Ms Keane's replacement on the council will be nominated at the March meeting.

Some others such as Lucinda Creighton and Chris Andrews and Catherine Byrne were forced to resign when they were elected to the Dáil in the last general election.

The others to leave the council are Niamh Cosgrave; Pascal Donohoe; Terence Flanagan; Brian Gillen; Wendy Hederman; Nicky Kehoe; Ann-Marie Martin; Mary Murphy; Andrew O'Connell; Robert Sargent and Tony Smithers.

Ms Keane, the latest councillor to quit, was a member of the Fianna Fáil group.

She is understood to have told colleagues she found the pressure of the job onerous.