Silly season for council trips

Analysis

Edwin McGreal

It’s coming up to silly season and Summer Schools are up and running around the country. It’s high season so for councillor junkets and right now many of Mayo councillors will be planning their trips to the four corners of the country.

One thing which is hard to argue with is that the further away, the better. Mileage is king and it seems it makes little sense to Mayo councillors to go to conference or ‘training’ days or weekends too close to home.

It’s why when you examine the 179 such trips Mayo county councillors invoiced for at the end of 2014, only three were in Mayo and only a further 18 in Connacht. Yet there were 36 trips to Donegal alone, ten trips to far-flung Co Wexford and an analysis of some of the events councillors went to can be quite revealing.

Some of these junkets are beneficial, certainly for new councillors looking to grasp their briefs and dealing with issues which come up regularly for councillors such as housing, roads and planning conferences. But plenty more make you wonder. In total Mayo county councillors invoiced for €92,416.25 in 2014 for hotel stays, mileage, conference fees and other related expenses for domestic trips.

Internet Elections

Fine Gael duo John O’Malley and Michael Burke were both unseated in the June 2014 local elections. It seems then that the Internet Elections seminar they went to in the Fitzgerald Hotel on the Naas Road in Dublin did not do them much good.

The two nights stay, mileage and conference fee set back the taxpayer a tidy sum though – €1,238.44 in total for both.

The seminar Michael Burke attended on Canvassing Tips 2014 was not enough to get him over the line either. The two night stay in Bewleys Hotel at Newlands Cross in Dublin cost the taxpayer €608.59. Quite why the taxpayer should have to pay for gigs like this aimed at helping candidates be elected is hard to fathom.

Even though he was in the midst of attempting to get re-elected, Cllr Tom Connolly (Fine Gael) still found time to plan for the future in April of 2014 when he attended a seminar in Dundalk entitled Retirement Planning for Councillors. The one night stay, expenses and conference fee cost the taxpayer €508.84. Maybe he was planning on being unseated.

Also with him at that seminar was Eddie Staunton, who did retire last year. He clearly spent a lot of time getting ready for stepping away from public life. The then longest serving councillor on Mayo County Council invoiced for €552.56 for Retirement Planning For Councillors in April.

In May he went to a seminar entitled Retirement Entitlements and Taxation Benefits for Councillors in Carlingford, Co Dundalk. The cost of that trip, €562.92, was borne by the taxpayer in order that a councillor could find out how much more money he was entitled to take from the taxpayer. Makes you wonder. Eddie Staunton got a gratuity upon retiring for over €60,000.

Cllr Damien Ryan was also at that conference, claiming expenses of €641.15. Maybe he was not too confident of keeping his seat either.

Those in Erris in favour of sustainable energy will be worried when they hear Cllr Gerry Coyle attended a conference in Letterkenny entitled Future Energy Needs - Wind Turbines to Nuclear. If the Corrib Gas project was controversial, could you imagine what a nuclear power plant proposal for the Barony of Erris would be like?

But before we could reach for the dramatic headlines, we noted he also attended a seminar in April 2014 in Newry entitled Nuclear Free Local Authorities All-Ireland Forum.

Claremorris-based Cllr Richard Finn hit the taxpayer for €350 for a trip to the Clonakilty Hotel in Co Cork for a seminar entitled Microsoft Excel Workshop for Councillors. Quite why he could not find somewhere closer to home to upskill is beyond us.

Al McDonnell and Eugene McCormack both attended a seminar in the Louis Fitzgerald Hotel in Dublin entitled Budget 2014 for Canvassing, costing just shy of €600 each. It was a more worthwhile trip, it would appear, for McDonnell who would keep his seat while McCormack lost his.

We’ll save the best for last though. Cllr Seamus Weir put in a claim for €578.04 for a trip to the Clanree Hotel in Letterkenny where he stayed for two nights in March of 2014 for a conference called Value for Money in Local Government. We’d suggest the best value for money there would have been for Cllr Weir to stay at home or pay for the trip out of his own pocket.

Councillors’ expenses breakdown

Here is a breakdown of expenses claimed by councillors and former councillors in 2014 for conferences and training (including conference fees):

Margaret Adams €7,465.33; Cllr Cyril Burke €2,734.26; Michael Burke €5,560.15; Cllr John Caulfield €90.24; Cllr Tom Connolly €4,647.67; Cllr Gerry Coyle €4,472.17; Cllr John Cribbin €6,80737; Neil Cruise €425.04; Cllr Richard Finn €5,346.70; Cllr Blackie Gavin €2,862.75; Cllr Michael Holmes €3,053.59; Cllr Christy Hyland €2,177.90; Cllr Henry Kenny €2,400.31; Cllr Michael Kilcoyne €1,079.85; Eugene McCormack €1,986.73; Cllr Al McDonnell €2,804.21; Micheal McNamara €2,766.19; Joe Mellett €297.63; Cllr Gerry Murray €595.28; Cllr Patsy O’Brien €4,299.80; Cllr John O’Hara €5,440.24; Cllr Austin Francis O’Malley €1,851.34; John O’Malley €3,222.99; Cllr Annie-May Reape €3,703.10; Cllr Damien Ryan €9,371.17; Eddie Staunton €3,504.34; Cllr Seamus Weir €3,353.03.  

The following councillors and former councillors put in no claim for any conference or training expenses in 2014: Cllr Lisa Chambers, Cllr Rose Conway-Walsh, Cllr Frank Durcan, Peter Flynn, Cllr Gerry Ginty, Eugene Lavin, Cllr Michael Loftus, Jimmy Maloney, Cllr Tereasa McGuire, Cllr Paul McNamara, Cllr Brendan Mulroy and Cllr Jarlath Munnelly.

A full breakdown of expenses is available on www.mayococo.ie/en/YourCouncils/CountyCouncillors/

- Edwin McGreal