This article is from page 10 of the 2006-03-14 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 10 JPG
TOP council official Tom Coughlan has once again claimed the highest amount in expenses among the executives of Clare County Council.
Mr Coughlan’s claimed €12,928 last year, the fourth year in a row that the Ennis town Manager and Director for Community and Enterprise claimed the top amount.
The €1,000 per month claimed by Mr Coughlan last year was more than €5,000 greater than next highest amount claimed, by Director for the Environment and Shannon Town Manager, Ger Dollard. He claimed €7,778.
Figures provided by the council, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, show that Clare’s County Manager, Alec Fleming added to his €109,000 salary with €7,706 in expenses.
The salary scale for Directors of Service goes from €75,000 to €89,000. The manager and directors of service also shared a fund of €72,000 in undisclosed ‘bonus’ payments last year.
Mr Fleming ordered a management shake-up last year with Mr Coughlan transferring from Housing to Community and Enterprise.
Mr Dollard went from Planning to the Environment and David Timlin left Environment to take up Housing.
Bernadette Kinsella switched from Community and Enterprise to Planning. She is also Manager of Kilrush Town Council.
County Engineer, Tom Carey, remained as Director for Infrastructure.
In all, the Manager and the Directors claimed €46,767 in expenses – down from the €59,000 claimed in 2004.
Mr Timlin claimed €7,246 in expenses, Mr Carey, € 6,531 and Bernadette Kinsella – who was on leave for the second part of the year – claimed €4,680.
In all, the 998 Council employees claimed €1.788 million in expenses last year, down on the €1.9 million claimed in 2004.
Mr Coughlan was the only member of the executive to feature among the top ten overall expense earners in the council. The top earner claimed €18,571, though that included an overpayment of €3,271.
Eighteen of the twenty top recipients in expenses work in the council’s roads and water infrastructure section, the department with responsibility for the county’s network of 3600 km of road, along with public water and sewerage installations.
Five officials, one wastewater inspector, two supervisors for rural water programmes and two executive engineers, each received in excess of €15,000.