Do they want Communion money too?

THE Government is facing a councillors’ revolt over moves to force them to follow the same ethical rules that TDs face, as part of the reforms of the Standards in Public Offices Commission. However, the chairman of the Committee on Finance and Public Expenditure, John McGuinness said he was deeply concerned about the Public Sector Standards Bill and that ‘no one is opposed to reasonable standards but many councillors are sent from pillar to post as it is on committees’. Fellow Fianna Fáil TD Dara Calleary warned: ‘Members of local authorities are trying to keep down a job in many cases, they do not have the back-up we have.’ One councillor noted: ‘We have Annual Declarations, Donations Declarations and Expenditures Declarations, what am I to tell bureaucrats next; my communion money.’