Councillors defend €116m rise in expense payments

COUNTY councillors and local authority managers yesterday defended the increase in expenses paid to them over the past decade, totalling €116 million.

Official figures show the payments have quadrupled with councillors earning over €25m in allowances and expenses last year compared to €6m in 1994.

The cost of sending councillors to conferences abroad came to almost €1.2m last year three times as much as it cost in 1994. And expenses and allowances paid to councillors over the past decade have risen by 318% nearly six times the average industrial wage.