After all of the recent controversy and discussion in the local media on conference expenses, I thought it might be worthwhile to give a breakdown of how councillors are paid and the expenses that are available to us.
Members of City and County Councils are paid an annual representational allowance set at a quarter of the salary of a member of Seanad Éireann (approx. €16,000 since the last budget). In addition, members who chair one of the Council’s five Special Policy Committees receive an additional payment of €6,000 per annum.
Members of Kildare County Council get a monthly expenses payment to cover mileage, subsistence, phone, stationery, IT and general expenses. The monthly payment is based on a number of calculations such as the round-trip distance from home to the Council chamber. The only vouched part of the expenses is a requirement to furnish mobile bills on a regular basis (members can claim up to 50% of the cost up to a limit of €600 per annum). In order to claim expenses, members must attend 80% of their statutory meetings. Attendance is based on signing a register at the meeting, however no note is taken of whether the member remains for the meeting itself.
The final sources of payment are expenses claimed for attendance at conferences. This is set at a limit of €2,500 per member for 2010, and the selection of relevant conferences is agreed by the group leaders of the parties\independents. Members must now publish detailed reports and these will be now be published on KCC’s website along with the member’s expenses claim.
Good post. A councillor can expect to earn no more than €22,000 per annum plus expenses.
So to summarise:
1. Approx. €16,000 per annum
2. €6,000 per annum if chair of an SPC
3. Expenses paid monthly (of which, mobile phone expenses must be vouched and are limited to €600 per annum)
4. Upto €2,500 per annum for conference expenses
Some questions:
1. Are the main council representational allowances and SPC chair allowances taxable?
2. Are details of each monthly expense claim available to the public (not just total figure)?
3. Is there any minimum number of conferences a councillor must attend to recoup €2,500 in expenses?
4. Are attendance records available for each councillor?
I think to 50%/€600 cap on mobile phone expenses is a bit restrictive. I presume most of a councillor’s mobile phone expenses relate to council work.
Tony thanks for posting that up. Do you think the Councillor’s remuneration is fair or do you think they get paid too much or too little. I know during the election campaign I was putting in longer days than I ever have although I know that is a time of particular pressure when the hustings are ongoing. I presume it calms down a little when in office. Still I would imagine there are many more demands one one’s time than official meeting schedule suggests.
Do you see a role for full time salaried Councillors? Less of them and better paid. Or do you think the current system ticks over ok?
Thanks for the feedback Conor. To answer your questions…
1. The representational allowance is indeed taxable at the highest appropriate rate (in my case 41%). I’m not sure about the SPC chairs as I am not one myself.
2. The expenses claims are not published in general, but can be obtained via a freedom of information request. My total monthly amount is normally €491.88 and it’s the same every month.
3. The €2,500 is claimed as members attend the conferences. They submit expenses and a report after the conference and get their payment (to include fees, accommodation and mileage). The maximum claimable amount over 2010 is €2,500.
4. Attendance records are available via FOI but they are not published. My own attendance for 2009 was almost 100% – I missed an extra Council meeting outside of the published schedule due to work commitments, and I missed the December Joint Policing Committee meeting.
Ultimately there’s a question over the role and functions of local government. Some members work fulltime as county councillors, however a lot of the work they do is not really ‘local government’ as it more social work and filling in the gaps between different service providers. They do some really good work on the ground, but I don’t think that should be their role. I’d rather see the relevant agencies equipped properly to complete their function rather than 1,000 fulltime councillors across the country trying to meet the needs.
If local government’s powers were increased, we could probably support a greater number of full-time local reps but they would really need wider mandates and a clearer definition of their powers.
Then again, there are many in Dáil Éireann who see their roles much as I’ve described above.
Indeed, I agree, however my suggestion for full time reps was based on fewer of them.
I think we’re coming at the same answer from different directions – I think there should be fewer reps, but also larger operational areas. Kildare is at the upper edge of the ratio of population to councillors, while Leitrim has a smaller population than my electoral area. A reform would also require a review of what constitutes the critical mass for effective administration. We’re operating under a plan from 1898 so a bit of an update would be no harm.
Probably preaching to the converted here Tony, agreed in theory and made my own submissions on this in earlier reform initiatives where we touched base at the time. Just curious to see had your views changed at all after a bit of first hand experience, which I haven’t got (yet!)
Thanks Tony for the answers.
I wonder will KCC ever publish more detailed information on their website.
It would be nice to know what councillors monthly expenses are and what meetings they attend. Not from a nosy point-of-view, I’d just be curious to see who’s working hard and who isn’t.