This article is from page 16 of the 2006-11-07 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 16 JPG
MEMBERS of Clare County Council have expressed concern at the authority’s creation of a new job to accommodate a highly paid senior official returning early from a yearlong leave of absence.
In January of this year, County Manager, Alec Fleming signed an order allowing the council’s Director for Housing, David Timlin to take a year of unpaid leave, which is a frequent occurrence in local authorities.
However, the council has circulated councillors with a statement to state that Mr Timlin has now returned to the council and “has been assigned to a number of projects, cross-cutting in nature, which require special focus at a senior level over the next few months”.
Once he took the the year off, senior official, Josephine Cotter Coughlan was put in charge of housing. She will remain in place until early in the New Year when Mr Timlin will reassume responsibility for that area.
In the meantime, Mr Timlin’s responsibilities are to include “technical issues” relating to the council’s new €27 million HQ that is currently being constructed by Michael McNamara & Co. Mr Timlin will also be responsible for “the development and roll-out of risk management systems and processes as required by the council’s Insurers, IPBMI Ltd”.
However, senior council member, Cllr Patricia McCarthy (Ind) said yesterday: “The council is supposed to have five Directors of Service. Does it now have six Directors arising from Mr Timlin coming back early?”
The salary scale for Directors of Service range from €84,465 to €99,823.
On Mr Timlin being employed to oversee “technical issues” in relation to the council HQ, Cllr McCarthy said: “If the council did not have the capacity to deal with these projects at the outset, they shouldn’t have taken them on.
“Why was this appointment made at the start of the new civic offices building, rather than in the middle of it. This is very unusual.”
“Is there provision for allowing employees return early from a yearlong leave of absence and if so, is this a one off or will everyone be catered for? I would be worried about the precedent that this appointment will set.”
Cllr Brian Meaney (Green) said: “I would be concerned that it appears that a job has been created for Mr Timlin before his year is up. Where will the funding for this come from and will it impact on other areas as the council is finding it difficult to even partly meet requests for funding?”