Bord Snip boss paid €800 a day while devising savage cuts
Labour TD Tommy Broughan branded the scale of the payment appalling considering economist Colm McCarthy was tasked with slashing state spending.
Among the most controversial recommendations of the group included cutting all welfare payments by 5%, slashing at least €30 off child benefit, increasing the cost of care for the elderly, shutting half of all Garda stations and sharply reducing the number of teachers for special needs pupils.
Prof McCarthy was given a €35,000 “flat fee” for chairing the body which met 52 times on 45 separate days, according to information released to the Labour TD by the Finance Department.
“This means that Prof McCarthy was paid an astonishing €777.78 for each of those days.
“In practice, the head of An Bord Snip Nua may have been paid well over €1,000 per day for a normal working day,” Mr Broughan said.
The Labour deputy pointed out the daily fee equalled the amount of basic welfare benefit for four weeks.
“In the context of the brief given to An Bord Snip Nua by the Government to savagely cut public spending, this payment must count as one of the most cynical and laughable in the history of the State,” Mr Broughan said.
Prof McCarthy was the only member of the group to receive payment and neither he, nor the others, got expenses.
The total cost for the Bord came to €38,400, with €2,346.61 of that going on tea and sandwiches and a further €1,038.54 on couriers.
“Commentators have rightly drawn attention to the perceived similar career backgrounds of the membership of An Bord Snip Nua.
“But it is at least refreshing to note that they gave their services ‘pro bono’ unlike the chairman and spokesperson for the group, Prof Colm McCarthy,” the TD said, stressing his objection to the recommendations of The Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure Programmes.
“I regard the vast bulk of the McCarthy report as a disgraceful waste of taxpayers’ money and a pointless cover-up exercise by discredited Fianna Fáil and Green ministers.”
The TD said the most striking features of the report “are its total lack of any cost benefit analysis of its proposals and of any true forensic investigation of the aims of public policy and consequent public expenditure”.
“Many of the savage cuts proposed in health, education and social welfare benefits would devastate the lives of Ireland’s most vulnerable citizens,” he said.
The Finance Department defended the fee: “Given the time involved and the quality of the report, it was money well spent,” a spokesperson said.
