Dáil watchdog to probe presidential spending

SPENDING by the Office of the President is to be probed by the Dáil’s spending watchdog for the first time since its controversial intervention ahead of last year’s election.

The Public Accounts Committee faced criticism when it investigated presidential spending a month before voters went to the polls.

Questions were raised about a €317,000 unaudited allowance available to President Michael D Higgins and his predecessors. Claims about Áras spending were used by Mr Higgins’s rivals to attack him during the campaign.

Department of the Taoiseach secretary general Martin Fraser – who is the accounting officer for the presidency – is expected to tell TDs today that €3.6m was spent in 2017 and €294,000 was returned to the Exchequer. He will also note that the President is not answerable to the Oireachtas and will say he gets assurances the office operates properly.