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10 Dec 2025
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10 Dec 2025
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Left: The Hillgrove Hotel in Monagahan. Right: Cllr Tom Cronin and Cllr John Pratt were among the highest expense claimers.
Waterford councillors claimed over €7000 in expenses for a one-night trip to Monaghan in June, WaterfordLive can reveal.
A total of nine public representatives travelled from Waterford to Monaghan for a training day on June 21.
They attended the AILG Annual Training Conference, which took place at the Hillgrove Hotel.
The full list of councillors was as follows: Pat Nugent (FG), Damien Geoghegan (FG), Jason Murphy (FF), John Pratt (LAB), John O’Leary (FF), Declan Clune (IND), Lola O’Sullivan (FG), Niamh O’Donovan (FG) and Tom Cronin (FF).
Each councillor spent a night in the hotel, at a cost of €205.53, including lunch. The cost of the training itself was €90 per person.
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However, the vast majority of the expenses claimed were related to travel.
Most councillors were under a mileage rate of €0.9063 per kilometre, which is the highest public-sector band for private cars.
To qualify for this rate, councillors had to be driving a car over 1500cc and to have travelled in between 1,501 and 5,500 kilometres this year.
Labour councillor John Pratt claimed the highest amount in that regard, having travelled a total of 740 kilometres. For this, he claimed expenses of €670.76.
Fianna Fáil councillor Tom Cronin’s travel expenses were similarly high, standing at €634.41.
All nine councillors travelled in their own cars, at an average cost of €529.08 each.
Having travelled by electric car, Fine Gael’s Niamh O’Donovan had the lowest travel expenses at just under €300.
The training conference was titled ‘A New Approach to Planning - the Revised National Planning Framework & Planning Act’.
Development plans, the zoning of land and sustainable development were among the topics discussed.
Upon attending the conference, each councillor was required to fill out a form to provide feedback on the event. Every councillor marked the event as either ‘excellent’ or ‘very good’.
In total, sending the nine councillors to the conference is estimated to have cost Waterford City and County Council approximately €7250.
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