Councillors net €33k in prison visit expenses

COUNCILLORS earned almost €33,000 in expenses and allowances for visiting prisons in 2002, it emerged yesterday.

This is on top of the €25 million in expenses and allowances that local authority members earned last year.

The Minister for Justice appoints Prison Visiting Committees to every place of detention throughout the country.

It was originally intended that these committees would be made up of local people who would visit the prisons and report to the minister on conditions there.

But in recent years these appointments have become a lucrative perk in the gift of the minister, and six councillors who do not even have prisons in their constituencies have been appointed to these visiting committees.

These include three Kerry county councillors who were appointed by the then Justice Minister John O’Donoghue. They earned €13,677 in expenses in the first 11 months of last year, according to figures released to the Farmers Journal under the Freedom of Information Act.

Councillor Michael O’Shea received €7,063 for being part of the Wheatfield prison visiting committee, bringing his overall income in expenses and allowances to €45,125.

Cllr Tom Fleming from Scartaglen got €3,501 for his presence on the Arbour Hill prison committee, bringing his total income in expenses and allowances to €42,844.

And Cllr Michael Cahill picked up €3,113 for being on the Curragh prison visiting committee, netting him an overall total of €42,456 in expenses and allowances.

Two Galway councillors, Mary Hoade and Michael Fahy, picked up €5,113 and €4,254 for their respective services on Wheatfield and Limerick prison committees. This brings Cllr Hoade’s overall expenses and allowances income to €43,447, and Cllr Fahy’s total expenses and allowances earnings to €46,375.

Donegal councillor Rena Donaghey received €5,232 for being on the Wheatfield prison visiting committee in 2002.

The only councillor who did have a prison in his own constituency, Cavan’s Cllr Clifford Kelly, managed to earn €4,693 for being on the Loughan House committee. This brought his total earnings in expenses and allowances to €47,313.

€The 25m earned by county councillors, which was revealed last week, did not include expenses and allowances for sitting on Town and Borough Councils.

Now it has emerged that county councillors who also sit on Town Councils receive an additional allowance of €5,500, get paid to go to monthly meetings and clock up money for going to conferences.

In the case of a Borough Council, the mayor has an additional annual allowance of €22,625.