Politicians’ expenses - O’Donoghue regrets

JOHN O’DONOGHUE might wish his political colleagues’ expenses would attract the same scrutiny as his have.

Such scrutiny might confirm he is just one of many who enjoy splendid arrangements and might take some of the heat off the south Kerry deputy.

In his letter to Dáil deputies yesterday, O’Donoghue expressed regret at the level of some of his expenses.

It would be easier to accept that this regret was as deeply felt as it might be if we could discount suggestions that Fine Gael’s Tom O’Higgins resigned from the chairmanship of the Houses of the Oireachtas audit committee because he could not secure a meeting with Mr O’Donoghue to advance that committee’s proposal to cap deputies’ expenses and to insist on receipts in all instances.

There is also the growing suspicion that Mr O’Donoghue’s superiors have not acted because his expenses are representative rather than exceptional.