This article is from page 2 of the 2006-02-07 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 2 JPG
CLARE’s “globetrotting” Oireachtas members ran up an expense bill of almost €300,000 in 2005, records released to The Clare People reveal.
Independent TD, James Breen, almost doubled his Dáil salary, receiving €75,121 in expenses, the highest amount received by any Clare Oireachtas member.
He was closely followed by Fine Gael’s Pat Breen, who received €73,054. Senator Brendan Daly (FF) received €56,259 and Senator Timmy Dooley (FF) received €44,088.
The records, released under the Freedom of Information Act, show that Junior Ministers, Tony Killeen and Sile de Valera, received €18,251 and €17,776 respectively. Their figures are lower as their expense funds are drawn from direct Government department funds.
It cost the taxpayer €2,369 to send James Breen on a week-long trip to Tokyo last May, where he was one of a number of TDs to accompany the President, Mary McAleese.
However, Clare’s most frequent flyer was Brendan Daly, who ran up travel bills of €9,965 through his membership of the Council of Europe.
Senator Daly’s travels took him on 10 separate trips to Bucharest, five to Strasbourg, and twice each to Geneva, Iceland, and Paris. The most expensive trip was a three day trip to Iceland last September, which cost €1,575.
“Ireland is one of the founder members of the Council of Europe and it is very important that Ireland is represented as the Council of Europe does very important work and its work on rendition has received a lot of publicity recently,” said Senator Daly.
“However, much of its other work does not receive much attention.”
At one time, Senator Daly led the Irish delegation to the Council of Europe.
Senator Daly confirmed that he stepped down as a Council of Europe representative on January 1. This is expected to result in a drop in Senator Daly’s expense bill this year.
Fine Gael’s Pat Breen ran up a travel expense bill of €8,409 on Council of Europe business. Deputy Breen’s seven separate trips took him to Strasbourg, Baku, Turkey, Paris and St Petersburg.
Deputy Breen’s most expensive trip was to St Petersburg for four days last April, which cost the taxpayer €1,620. A separate four day trip to Turkey last May cost the taxpayer €1,531.
The expenses records relating to Senator Timmy Dooley show that he went on no overseas trips paid by the taxpayer in 2005.