Ex-councillor Lundy in RTÉ investigation into expenses
A FORMER member of Sligo County Council featured in an RTÉ Investigates programme on councillors’ expenses which aired on Tuesday night.
Former Fianna Fail councillor Jerry Lundy from Tubbercurry was one of a number of councllors nationally whose expenses were scrutinised in the programme called Claims, Planes and Automobiles.
Expenses claims by Leitrim Fine Gael councillor Enda McGloin were also part of a website version of the investigation not including in the TV version. Through freedom of information requests, RTÉ Investigates obtained expenses details from every local authority in the country. They said they then cross-referenced that data with information obtained from over 30 public bodies, which also pay councillors expenses.
Presenter Conn Corrigan said that while “the vast majority of councillors claim expenses correctly, we found some who do not always do so”.
The programme referred to Jerry Lundy as having been first elected to Sligo County Council in 2004, a seat he held for Fianna Fail until his political retirement in 2019.
He was also a member of the European Committee of the Regions, an EU assembly made up of delegates from local authorities, which involved a lot of travel to Brussels and elsewhere in the EU, for meetings and events. Members of the Committee of the Regions receive expenses, but not salaries.
The programme detailed expenses claims submitted by Mr Lundy in 2015 to both Sligo County Council and the EU Committee of the Regions.
The claims highlghted by the programme appeared to show Mr Lundy claiming expenses to travel to conferences and training events in Ireland, which coincided with Committee of the Regions events he attended, in places such as Poland, Brussels and Spain, on the same dates.
RTE said that they had put a series of questions to Mr Lundy about the instances they identified but they said “he would not respond to our repeated queries”. He did say, however, that he had left local government over two years ago, on health grounds.
The Sligo Weekender was unable to make contact with Mr Lundy for comment as we went to press yesterday, Wednesday.