Local government reveals €23.5m bill for councillors’ salaries and expenses

Cork County Council and Dublin City Council are the big spenders, but the overall cost has been reduced, writes Orla Walsh.

COUNTY and city councillors were paid more than €23.5 million in salaries and expenses last year.

There are 883 councillors in the 34 local authorities nationwide. The figures provided demonstrate that the cost of local government has dropped significantly in the last two years as a result of a decrease in councillor’s salaries as well as the tightening of the expenses regime.

Cork County Council had the highest spend of the 31 local authorities that provided figures — with the 48 councillors earning more than €1.57m between them before tax in 2010.

Cork City Council and Longford County Council refused to provide details of expenses. Louth County Council provided an overall figure but not a breakdown of each councillor, citing administration issues.

The average payment to councillors in 2010 (not including Cork City and Longford County Council) was €28,750.

Cork Fine Gael TD Jim Daly was the highest-paid councillor in the country in 2010, earning more than €67,900 before tax. This included a €16,683 salary, an allowance of €30,470 for his term as mayor of Cork County Council from June 2010 to March 2011, and just less than €4,500 for conferences.

“I have no difficulty with accepting that kind of money,” said Mr Daly.

“For that, I carried out the duties of mayor of the largest county in Ireland and the second largest local authority. I ran a constituency office and staffed it.”

He left his position as mayor early, in March of this year, due to his election to the Dáil.

Had he served a full term from June 2010 to June 2011, Mr Daly would have been in line for payments amounting to approximately €90,000, including his councillor’s salary, his mayoral allowance and various expenses.

“There are substantial expenses like fuel to consider, because of the amount of travel involved. I published my diary every week, where I was and what I did. I consider I performed my duties pretty well,” he added.

Derry Canty (FG) of Cork County Council was the second-highest paid councillor in 2010, earning more than €65,500. Mr Canty was county mayor from June 2009 to June 2010.

Despite guidelines set down by the then Environment Minister John Gormley in early 2010 to prevent councillors from claiming more than €4,700 on conferences, Mr Canty claimed in excess of €5,600 for conferences last year.

“I have no problem in standing over what is there,” said Mr Canty.

“At the time I had to do an awful lot of travelling as the mayor and it was the first time in years that the mayor was on the job seven days a week.

“Our expenses are there for us to claim. It’s all there in black and white and we’re hiding nothing.”

The figures provided to the Irish Examiner cover the calendar year 2010.

However, these figures do not take into account that the mayoral year runs from June to June, meaning that mayors of the country’s two biggest councils, Dublin City and Cork County, receive in excess of €90,000 for their term as mayor. This includes a mayoral allowance of €60,000 to €70,000, plus salary and expenses of €30,000. This compares to a TD’s salary of approximately €92,000.

Cllr Emer Costello of Dublin City Council received just less than €60,500 in 2010 before tax, making her the third-highest paid councillor in the country.

However, Ms Costello served as Lord Mayor of Dublin from June 2009 to June 2010, during which time she received a €68,000 mayoral allowance, along with her councillor salary of nearly €17,000 on top of her expenses.

When asked if she believed this payment was particularly high, Ms Costello refused to comment beyond saying her salary and allowances were decided by the council.

The fourth-highest paid councillor in 2010 was Dublin City Lord Mayor Gerry Breen, earning more than €58,800 in salary and expenses.

However, his term as mayor continues till next month so his overall package for his term as mayor will be much larger.

Bobby O’Connell of Kerry County Council took the fifth-highest amount last year — approximately €58,000 before tax.

Louth County Council paid out the lowest amount last year at €244,654.

The lowest-paid councillor in the country in 2010 was 77-year-old Labour councillor John Gallagher of Dublin City Council. He did not take a salary or attend any conferences, and thus received an annual allowance of €1,797.

“All my life I’ve been involved in community work and I’ve never taken anything,” said Mr Gallagher. “I decided to continue that in my work as a councillor.”