Councillors paid €916,311 in salaries and expenses

The overall bill of almost €1 million on basic pay, allowances and expenses paid to 34 Clare County Councillors [two changes were made after the Seanad elections] dropped by a 3.4% last year, despite huge cuts in salaries and overtime in the private sector.
In 2010, Clare’s 32 county councillors were paid a total of €949,9651.80 to cover their representational allowance. This figure fell by €33,000 to €916,311 last year.
The only real difference was in the number of councillors who were paid after Councillors Bill Slattery and Seán McLoughlin were co-opted to the council following the departure of Councillor Martin Conway and Tony Mulcahy on their election to the Seanad.
As expected, Mayor of Clare, Councillor Pat Hayes and the previous Mayor, Councillor Christy Curtin, were the two top earners.
Councillor Hayes, who welcomed the public disclosure of councillors’ payments, was paid €414,038 in 2011, which includes a mayoral allowance of €13,500. It also included two separate payments for office equipment of €874 and €424 for a laptop and printer.
Councillor Christy Curtin, who was also paid a mayor allowance of €13,500, received €40,235 in total in 2011. In a Clare Champion interview last week Councillor Curtin said he paid over €2,500 “out of his own pocket” to attend the St Patrick’s Day parade and other events in New York in 2011.
This week, however, Councillor Curtin admitted this came out of his mayoral allowance at the time.
He insisted he was entitled to use the €13,500 on additional expenses during the course of his term and could have opted to bill the council separately for the New York trip.
“If I wasn’t Mayor of Clare, I would not have to go on this trip. I could have billed the council and got a separate payment for this trip, which I wouldn’t do. That’s is why I said it came out of my own pocket. I am entitled to spend the €13,500 on mayoral expenses, which is my own money.
“It wasn’t my intention to cause any confusion in relation to this issue,” he said.
Councillor Curtin said he had attended at least 75 council meetings during the year and represented the authority at 100 functions in various parts of the county. Stating being mayor resulted in considerable extra expense, he estimated he had covered about 40,000 in mileage during his term.
He also had pointed out that €11,517 was deducted from his salary and payments last year including €8,433 in PAYE, €999 in PRSI, €772 for the pension levy and €1,311 for the universal social charge.
The next high earner was Councillor Joe Arkins who was paid €37,082 last year including €6,000 as chair of the Housing Strategic Policy Committee and €4,000 as chairman of the County Development Board.
Councillor Michael Kelly was paid €31,943 including a deputy mayor’s allowance of €4,500, which is subject to taxation.
All councillors are paid a basic allowance, which is subject to taxation of €16,724.
Councillors are also paid a basic allowance ranging between over €6,000 to €8,000 depending on where they reside in the county and the number of meetings they attend.
The only exception is Councillor Johnny Flynn, who has continued to live up to his pre-local election pledge not to claim any expenses or attend conferences. The Ennis East Councillor has only claimed €16,724, which is a councillor’s basis pay.
Having spent over 25 years working in a neighbouring local authority in the fire service, Councillor Flynn said he didn’t feel that his decision not to attend any conference in any adversely affected his effectiveness as a councillor.
The Independent Councillor acknowledged that some councillors did learn valuable new ideas to improve local authority services after attending conferences.
The Fine Gael Councillor, who also doesn’t claim any expenses for being a member of Ennis Town Council has also waived the €1,000 allowance for being chairperson of a MPC.
“Every councillor has different financial circumstances and it is up to every councillor to avail of their allowances and to attend conferences. As an Ennis-based councillor, I only have to travel a short distance to attend meetings while other councillors living in rural areas have much further to travel and are entitled to out-of-pocket expenses,” he said.