Do the decent thing

MICHAEL D HIGGINS has done a good job as President, making few missteps and enhancing Ireland’s image abroad, and it seems a fairly safe bet he will be elected for a second term.

Only one obstacle stands in his way, and that is the question of just how taxpayers’ money is spent on the administration of the Áras. President Higgins has refused to clarify whether he used any of an unvouched €317,000 allowance to pay salary top-ups to advisers.

Politicians say that revealing the cost of the presidency would politicise the office. Nonsense: politicians would continue to have no say on how the money is spent and we would have transparency. Indeed it is farcical for politicians to talk of not politicising the presidency when Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Labour have not just backed Michael D but FF and FG told their councillors to support him.

The President would deliver an enormous service to our democracy if he unilaterally decided to display the sort of transparency he once expected.

The rules might say there is no obligation to reveal how Áras expense are spent. Nor, we would remind the President, do they impose any ban on so doing.