€55,000 paid to town council members

JUST shy of €55,000 was paid to elected members of Shannon Town Council in 2009.

Twelve people sat on the council during the year, as there was a turnover of councillors due to the local elections last June.
Patricia McCarthy and Tony Mulcahy are also members of Clare County Council and both received an annual allowance of €2,209. Gerry Flynn is also a member of both councils and he received a total of €4,209, consisting of the annual allowance of €2,209 and a mayor’s allowance of €2,000.
Councillor Seán McLoughlin received a total of €9,164.46, with travel and subsistence payments of €2,154.46 with salary and allowance of €7,010. €4,401 of this was councillor’s basic pay and was subject to taxation. All town councillors who are not members of the county council were subject to taxation on this payment, although the amount received varied depending on how long they spent on the council.
Councillor Tony McMahon received a combined total of €8,190.42 while the figure for his party colleague Greg Duff was €6,860.
Michael Fleming, Mary Brennan and Cathy McCafferty were all elected for the first time last year and received payments of €3,897.44, €3,697.44 and €3,447.44 respectively.
Geraldine Lambert, Seán Hillery and Mike McKee all left the town council after opting not to stand in the last election. During 2009, there were payments of €3,591.50 to Councillors McKee and Hillery and €3,805.32 to Geraldine Lambert.