Norris received disability payments for 16 years

A startling revelation was revealed today by the Irish Independent, which stated that Senator David Norris received disability payments for 16 years.

Norris has confirmed to the paper that he did receive a payment for the period in question but he declined to say how much exactly it was worth. He also refused to comment on the nature of his ‘disability’, the paper states.

Norris was receiving the payment from 1994 up until July of last year, when he reached pension age. The 67-year-old had worked as a tutor and lecturer in Trinity College Dublin from 1968 until 1994 when he started claiming the payment.

In the investigation, Norris confirmed to the paper that the payment was around a quarter of his salary at the time, but he added that he “wasn’t getting anything like they get now.”

Norris now receives a pension from the college worth around €2,500 while he also receives €61,073 of his senator’s salary and €23,383 a year in Independent senator’s allowance. Norris did state that the Independent senator’s allowance he receives goes to his Seanad work.

Although he denied saying why he received the payments, he did say that he is in perfect health and insisted that it did not stand in the way of being president.

“And if you look at my Seanad record you see that. I hope we're not going down the medical route of all this but I will do any medical test you want. I just think this is getting daft. It shows how open I am, my life is an open book,” Norris told the paper.

He stated that his life is an open book, but he denied stating what exactly his disability was saying there “was a whole story about that” [the disability]. Sounds like that book could be a bit trickier than Ulysses.