€1.7m in expenses for Cork county councillors

Expenses and allowances for 55 county councillors in Cork amounted to €1.7m last year. Most of the spend, €1,429,646, was allocated for representative payments and allowances.

Additional allowances of €4,491 were given to the chair of each of the council’s eight municipal districts, while a further €41,000 was paid out in special allowances to all the chairmen of the council’s special purposes committees.

No individual breakdown was given on what each councillor received in total for 2015. However, the annual report listed that €138,921 was spent on training and conferences. In total, councillors attended 35 conferences, including in China and America.