County councillors’ 2016 expenses claims revealed
FIGURES for 2016 revealed that Cork County Councillors claimed almost €1.7 million in allowances and expenses between them during the year.
The figures cover a total of 68 elected councillors, including those that left the council to take up seats in Dáil Éireann following the 2016 general election and those who took up their vacant seats on the authority.
They show that between standard representational payments and other council related expenses the councillors claimed a grand total of €1,659,525.77 in payments covering the 12-month period.
In addition to containing a detailed breakdown of payments and expenses, documents filed under the section lists the number of full council, regional and municipal district meetings councillors attended during the year. It also lists the number of additional meetings they attended as members of different sub-committees covering a wide range of headings including joint policing, strategic policy, European affairs, library and 1916 commemorations.
It also give an overview of the training events, conferences and other events, including foreign travel, that various councillors attended in their official capacities during the year.
The expenses figures for each individual councillor showed that those who served for the full 12 months received a standard representational payment (or basic salary) of €16,408.18, with some receiving less depending on their length of service during 2016. This total came to €894,820.48
Between them the councillors also claimed a total of €464,324.22 in ‘monthly allowances’, €82,297.20 in ‘ training expenses’, €44,919.19 in municipal districts allowances and €36,865.75 in external committee expenses. It is important to note that not all councillors claimed expenses under the above categories.
Other expenses included €32,789.97 in mayoral allowances in relation to Cllr’s John Paul O’Shea and Seamus McGrath, both of whom held the position for sixmonth periods during the year.
Unsurprisingly, they were among those with the highest individual claimants for the year with Cllr O’Shea and Cllr McGrath’s totals coming in at €38,824.39 and €52,617.17 respectively.
Cllrs Joe Carroll and Kevin Conway also claimed €6,508.32 in deputy mayoral allowances between them.
The highest individual totals for the year were those of the late Dan Joe Fitzgerald (€59,385.29) and former councillor now Deputy Kevin O’Keeffe (€59,328.60). It should be noted that these included service gratuities of €53,153.86 and €54,390.08 respectively.
Only three other councillors claimed totals in excess of €40,000 in allowances and expenses for the year. The highest of these were West Cork Municipal District councillors Mary Hegarty (€43,681.06) and Joe Carroll €42,612.02 – which included the deputy mayoral allowance) and Cllr Frank O’Flynn from the Fermoy Municipal District whose final tally came in at €40,588.11.