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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