What your local TD has spent...

Sizzler

(Mods hope this is OK).

Folks,

Lots of posts about the subject of expenses on the politics forum but as residents and voters for NCD I thought you might all be interested in how much your local TD has totted up over the last 2 years!

http://www.unitedpeople.ie/imagelib/sitebuilder/misc/show_image.html?linkedwidth=actual&linkpath=http://www.unitedpeople.ie/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/IMG_0007.jpg&target=tlx_piclwkl

You might well want to ask him how he exactly he managed to accumalate such a figure in such a short time, on top of a 6 figure salary...

Do you think we are getting value for money? Given these TD's live within easy reach of the city centre I cant see how these numbers are explicable, but sure Im only a taxpayer, what would I know.

Dizzyblonde

:eek:

I'd love to know how Michael Kennedy spent €95,000 when Trevor Sargent got by on €19,000 !

Khannie

Interesting reading. Thanks.

Auvers

ffs Brendan Howlin in Wexford spent €221,310 :eek:

sneem-man

The Irish political system is rotten to the core...

They're all at it.:mad:

lostexpectation

michael woods 134,000 how did a dead man spend that much

Gillo

Dizzyblonde wrote: »

:eek:

I'd love to know how Michael Kennedy spent €95,000 when Trevor Sargent got by on €19,000 !

Have to say while I don't always agree with his policies I always give Sargent one of my top votes since he has to be the most credible politician I know.

Nodster

sneem-man wrote: »

The Irish political system is rotten to the core...

They're all at it.:mad:

you're right their Ted, sadly it'll never change and the elected politicians will keep taking advantage of it cause they're allowed and not accountable. NO REWARD FOR FAILURE!!

Beasty

Gillo wrote: »

Have to say while I don't always agree with his policies I always give Sargent one of my top votes since he has to be the most credible politician I know.

All the Government Ministers have low figures, and presumably expenses when on State business are excluded from this analysis. Having said that Sargent never gives me the impression of "living the high life", and does appear to be quite careful what he does with our money

Absurdum

lostexpectation wrote: »

michael woods 134,000 how did a dead man spend that much

he's alive! :pac:

LeoB

Absurdum wrote: »

he's alive! :pac:

Maybe he booked his funeral and claimed for it this year;)

dcr22B

One of the lads in work came up with a fantastic idea that we should use some of the empty apartment blocks in the city centre that are covered under NAMA (might as well seem as though we paid at least €7bn over the odds) for the accomodation of the country TDs. Might see those amounts decrease then!

LeoB

I am as cynical as the next person but I do think some of the stuff being fed to media is simply pathetic. Some journalists seem only happy when digging crap about expenses.

Most of the electorate would have greens out of Government in the morning, (I am not one of them). I dont see or hear a lot of Trevor Sargent (and dont vote for him well maybe 3rd, 4th or 5th) maybe his figure is that low because he is not putting in the hours? While from the Greens you have John Gormley and Dan Boyle who always seem to be getting a lot of airtime.

What should we expect from them as regard expenses? If Trevor Sargent was away to U.S.A. in the morning on a week long trip with the prospect of generating 100 or 200 jobs should we object to his partner going? Should he stay in a Motel or Hotel? Where should he host a recpetion?

O.K some will go over the top but we should not be to cynical (me included) untill we have read all the details and also remember most of these trips are booked by department officials

Alan Farrell

Dizzyblonde wrote: »

:eek:

I'd love to know how Michael Kennedy spent €95,000 when Trevor Sargent got by on €19,000 !

The Minister is paid by his department and not by the Oireachtas, therefore his expenses would not feature on the list.

I'm fairly sure that his expenses would exceed even Kennedy.

Alan Farrell

As a matter of interest, does anyone have a list of Councillors expenses??

Sizzler

Has anybody emailed / written to their local TD asking them to explain their expenses? Ive emailed them all and only one has replied.

Sizzler

From todays Daily Mail

wrote:

Nor are the questionable claims confined to Fianna Fáil ministers. Former Green Party leader Trevor Sargent claimed for more than €40,000 which was paid to two Green activists.

This included a €9,080 payment to Ken Duffy, who unsuccessfully ran in the Swords constituency in last June's local elections. The claim was for the 'research and supply of information relating to issues within the Swords Ward, writing of articles to publicise events and Minister Sargent's work in the area', as well as 'drawing up of press releases pertaining to ongoing and new issues as they arise'. Minister Sargent also paid former Green Party councillor Joe Corr E31,511 to work as his parliamentary assistant in 2008.

Mr Corr was hired for the job even though the Department of Agriculture already has a dedicated Press team, while the Green Party has its own media office.

The Hill Billy

Typical Daily Mail disingenuity tbh. There's a world of a difference between what a department- or party press office offers & what a parliamentary assistant actually does.

Press matters are dealt with by the press offices.

A parliamentary assistant performs secretarial services, dealing with correspondence, the scheduling of meetings/surgeries, constituents/lobbyists/pressure group queries, research, speech-writing, managing of other staff, etc, etc, etc...

meditraitor

Hill Billy wrote: »

Typical Daily Mail disingenuity tbh.

Has to be the worst paper for complete sh1t, and considering the SUN,Mirror and star are also on sale that is saying something

Teacherman

Just looked up Brian Hayes but want to know-surely some of these expenses pertain to office expenditure? Running an office?

Sizzler

Teacherman wrote: »

Just looked up Brian Hayes but want to know-surely some of these expenses pertain to office expenditure? Running an office?

All TD's are given a fixed fee of c.€9,800 annually towards the "running" of their constituency office. As we have seen from some of the other expenses published to date I dont think TD's would be prohibited from claiming for extras around the running of their local constituency.

For example Barry Andrews spent a few grand in getting PENS made up with his name on it :eek:

Nozebleed

regardless whether or not you think this spending is justified,excessive or outrageous(in the case of many). I assume we all agree each and every penny should be accounted for..How its was spent,Who spent it and who recieved payment..and why. if that was cleared up/documented i would have no problem with most of the figures listed. the fact that these people think they can spend as they wish without explaination is laughable..

EVERY PENNY..why do we vote for these people??

LeoB

With all the stuff about John O'Donoghue these past few days only one commentator has raised the issue of who books the flights, schedules, dinner parties and receptions. Senior officials. So who is really accountable? Ultimatley the Minister ok, but I think some officials should be made account for their mishandling of our money.

I dont have a problem with them bringing their wives on week long trips. I would bring mine and I think a lot of people would do the same.

But vouched expenses are the only way. This hole saga is a serious wake up call for both public and private sector as a lot of M.Ds will be looking at where the money is going in these times.

I got a cross pen off my company in 1984 as did every other employee. We buy our own tea bags and coffee.

Bluetonic

LeoB wrote: »

I think some officials should be made account for their mishandling of our money.

Can you say what guidelines they are working to and who has passed them? If not, why should they be held accountable?

Nozebleed

Bluetonic wrote: »

Can you say what guidelines they are working to and who has passed them? If not, why should they be held accountable?

There are no guidelines..are there? who passed them you ask? nobody passed any..its a free for all...the mindset is take whatever you can,lap it up while you can and say nothing...but if someone does ask a few testing questions and the **** hits the fan just play dumb. why should they be held accountable? because its our fcuking money.

Fingleberries

If we look a the example across the water in the UK, when it became public knowledge the disgraceful expenses that were claimed by the MPs heads rolled, public apologies were made by all parties and there was some sort of accountability.

Here, all the TD's keep schtum because someone might look into their expenses over the years.

Then you have the one person who gets the chop (John O'Donoghue) as a sacrificial offering to the baying media - but he gets to announce that he will resign in a weeks time (just in case the Green Party pull the plug on the whole thing at the weekend and he would miss out on his free re-election if he wasn't Ceann Comhairle at the time an election was called). Why is he not forced to go immediately because of incompetence? Because it's a golden handshake for him, and he'll go quietly without dragging up everyone elses expenses.

In every company I have worked for, there was an expenses procedure - you had to justify what you spent before you could be reimbursed. And you needed to have a receipt, or there was no pay back.

Not so for TD's and other elected officials, they are given so much unvouched expenses (ludicrous) and then there are the subsistence, travel and other expenses that are set more as targets for them to aim at the highest number rather than a repayment for expenses incurred in the execution of their duty.

All the time, they hide behind the 'entitled' to these expenses - legally, maybe so. But in these unprecedented economic times (as the government call it) there should be more frugality and accountability with our money.

Sizzler

O'Donoghue may have been the sacrificial lamb but I doubt the baying media will let this one go, he was an easy target, there has to be others.

Brendan Howlin was his stand in today, Mr.Howlin has managed to chalk up €221k in expenses in 26 months, if you refer back to the link in my OP. I'm sure that level of expenditure would make just as interesting reading to the electorate.

The Hill Billy

Let's keep it local folks. If you want to discuss country-wide politicians' expenses - please take it to the Politics forum.

Thanks, HB

LeoB

Bluetonic wrote: »

Can you say what guidelines they are working to and who has passed them? If not, why should they be held accountable?

No I cant say what guidelines there are, if any.But there is a very basic moral issue here and its simply wrong that a civil servant can go off on what is basically a spending spree, with our money. This I believe is only the tip of the ice berg and that is why John O'Donoghue has lasted as long as he did. BTW Brendan Howlin was the one who shared that expensive dinner in Dublin with him!!!

Where has all the money gone Fingal C.C. got in developer contributions? I dont imagine it was wasted the same way as these clowns did. I would have some faith in the local politicans but no doubt there was wastage there also. Its a basic requirement you have checks in place in any organisation

I dont have a gripe with the Civil servants as such but someone has to be accountable for the wreckless spending they went on.