Sinn Féin Councillor Gary Doherty says he is committed to ending the practice of County Councillors being paid to attend conferences after revealing how some of your money is spent on them.
Presently Councillors can claim up to €2,000 per annum to attend conferences held in Ireland on various issues. However Cllr Doherty claims that many of these conferences are simply exercises in claiming expenses, a practice he feels should be abolished.
Speaking today he said: “In my short period on Donegal County Council I have witnessed first hand the abuses of the conference allowance.
“Elected members are heading away for a weekend by the sea and Donegal County Council are picking up the tab. I will not stand idly by and let that practice continue. Should I be elected in two weeks time the first motion that I will submit will be a motion calling for the end of the conference allowance.”
He continued: “At last month’s Council meeting Councillors were presented with the opportunity to attend conferences on such important issues as ‘Retirement planning for Councillors’ in Dundalk, for which payment totalling €426 was available.
“Or if that didn’t appeal they could opt for a ‘Data Protection’ seminar in Oughterard which paid €531. Is it really in the public interest to pay over €400 for a County Councillor to plan his retirement? In my view it absolutely is not. The value of these conferences is highly debatable and to date I have not been presented with a detailed report from any conference attended by a member from Donegal.
“Just yesterday we leaned that one Councillor in Donegal earned over €90,000 as a public representative in the last two years. It is high time we put a stop to these practices and took these lads off the gravy train and back to reality with the rest of us.”
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