This article is from page 20 of the 2008-04-01 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 20 JPG
NINETEEN members of Clare County Council claimed over €30,000 each in salaries and ex- penses last year, new figures released yesterday show.
Overall, the 32 members of Clare County Council received €1.37 million in salaries and expenses in 2007.
The figures released by the council show that former mayor Cllr Flan Garvey (FF) claimed the highest amount, netting over €45,000 dur- ing 2007.
Cllr Garvey was followed closely behind by the current mayor, Cllr Pa- tricia McCArthy (Ind) who claimed €43,631.
They are just two of 19 councillors that received over €30,000 in sala- ries and expenses last year.
The figures also show that it cost 228,585 to fund councillors’ travel to conferences all over Ireland and some overseas activities as well.
Mayors receive an annual allow- ance of €27,000 per annum. Both Cllr Garvey and Cllr McCarthy re- ceived €13,500 each last year.
Councillors receive a salary of €16,/52 after tax, while they also
receive monthly allowances to attend statutory meetings.
These allowances range from €6,000 to €7,500 each year.
Senior members of the council who are chairs of its Special Policy Com- mittees (SPC) receive an additional allowance of €6,000 each.
These members, Cllr Joe Arkins, Cllr Pat Hayes, Cllr PJ Kelly, Clir Ri- chard Nagle, and Cllr Tommy Bren- nan also attend meetings of the coun- cil’s Corporate Policy Group (CPG)
The policy group is involved in drawing up the agenda for each month’s council meeting.
The figures show that Cllr McCa- rthy also received an allowance of €4,500 through being chair of the County Development Board from January to September 2007.
Cllr Brian Meaney (Green) and Cllr Bill Chambers (FF) shared an allowance of €9,000 for being dep- uty mayor.
For the first time last year, council- lors were able to claim a maximum of €600 for usage of mobile phone Viste Reon
The allowance is to represent 50 per cent of total vouched mobile phone costs associated with a councillor’s public duties.