Local bodies spent €90k on union officials’ trips

UP to €90,000 of funds from what are now cash-strapped local authorities was used to send union officials on trips around the world to train them for talks on the social partnership process.

Taxpayers forked out €41,500 for a trip to New York in September 2001 when four union representatives and three county council officials got stranded because of the 9/11 terror attacks.

Further “international study visits related to partnership in other jurisdictions” were taken to Madrid in 2003 and Canada in 2007.

They were paid for by LANPAG — the Local Authority National Partnership Advisory Board — set up by former taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, to “deepen partnership” and bring it from a national to a local level.

Ten people spent six days in Toronto in 2007 to “meet with firefighter groups” and city council officials at a cost of almost €30,000.

They included Michael McGinty, Peter Nolan and Alice Hennessy from IMPACT, Paddy Coughlan from the TEEU, Brian Byrd from SIPTU and county manager in North Tipperary, Terry O’Niadh.

In September 7, 2001, a group travelled to New York, including Frank Kelly from Dublin City Council, Bernadette Kinsella from Offaly County Council, Brian Byrd from SIPTU, Al Butler from IMPACT, Finbarr Maguire from TEEU and Joe Byrne from UCATT.

They built up a bill of €41,507 which “overran estimates as the events of September 11 occurred during the study visit”, according to details of the trip provided by the Department of the Environment.

On top of these trips, LANPAG paid €790,000 into a mysterious bank account at the centre of an investigation into the Skill training programme.

In a letter to the Dáil Public Accounts Committee (PAC) the Department of the Environment said its representatives on the board were not aware that money was being paid into the account — known as the SIPTU National Health and Local Authority Funds.

It said €200,000 of what was paid into the account cannot be accounted for by receipts, invoices or other documentation. Environment officials on the board “have no recollection of any mention or discussion of the specific issue of the SIPTU bank account in questions,” the committee was told.

While invoices relating to conference, hotel and training costs can be traced for €589,919 of the €790,000 paid into the account, LANPAG has written to SIPTU “seeking copies of invoices not currently made available in respect of €200,000 granted to SIPTU for the purpose of training”.