Lowry tops spending league with €57,000 outlay on research, consultants, scripts

■ TD had highest allowance expenditure among Independents

MICHAEL Lowry spent €57,307 under a State-funded allowance available for parliamentary activities, the highest sum of any Independent TD last year.

The controversial Tipperary TD’s statement of expenditure in relation to the Parliamentary Activities Allowance (PAA) lists €28,905 spent on “research and training” and €28,402 on “consultants’ services”. That includes €13,530 on “public relations” and €14,452 on “script-writing”.

Independent TDs are entitled to an annual allowance of €37,037 under the scheme. Mr Lowry’s spending last year includes funding carried over from 2016. He did not respond to attempts to seek a comment and further explanation of his spending.

Mr Lowry (inset, top) and his refrigeration company were in the headlines last month after being fined a combined €25,000 for tax offences following a court trial.

The statements filed by 19 Independent TDs, with the Standards in Public Office Commission (Sipo), show expenditure under the PAA of a combined €564,477 in 2017.

Transport Minister Shane Ross (inset, middle) listed more than 70 events under “entertainment” with total spending in this category of €7,515. It includes hosting constituency and other groups in the Dáil bar and restaurant as well as coffee mornings at locations like the Union Cafe and Costa in his constituency. A spokesperson said he had welcomed many voluntary, education and community groups into Leinster House, including those who had “expressed an interest in either general parliamentary activities or have attended to support specific legislative measures which Minister Ross was pursuing”.

His Independent Alliance colleagues Finian McGrath and John Halligan both used part of their allowances for polling or “public-attitude sampling”.

Dublin Bay North TD Mr McGrath spent €10,147 on “Red C constituency research”.

A spokesperson did not say what this polling related to, but said it was “in connection with parliamentary debates or initiatives” and it complied with Sipo guidelines.

Waterford TD Mr Halligan had “door-to-door attitude sampling” carried out at a cost of €5,370 as part of €9,070 in similar spending overall. His spokesperson did not outline what this was for but insisted it was within Sipo rules.

Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone (inset, bottom) spent €31,828.66 on “consultants’ services – some provided by academics – and including

€2,952 with PR company, The Communications Clinic”.

A spokesperson said she “works with people who provide rigorous, intelligent and strategic insights on human rights, economics and social issues”.

Independents 4 Change, which includes Mick Wallace and Clare Daly, failed to submit an expenditure statement to Sipo prior to the deadline.

Political parties got a combined €13.5m under two State-funding streams, the PAA and separate Exchequer Funding under the Electoral Acts.