Vol. 514 No. 2
97 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government if he will review a situation whereby local authorities are stopping payments to councillors where they miss meetings due to illness in spite of the fact that they still incur ongoing expenses linked to their activities during their illness.. [3774/00]
The system of expenses allowances for elected members is designed to defray, in a structured way, members' travelling and subsistence costs arising from their attendance at council and committee meetings. Being an expenses system rather than a salary, it does not include specific provision for sick leave or holidays. For the same reason, there are no deductions for taxation. Members can however, avail of their full expenses allowance, even where they have not attended up to 20% of the council and committee meetings during the year. In addition, members only have to attend 50% of the meetings in a year to qualify in full for the miscellaneous representational element – ranging from £1,800 to £2,100 – of the allowance. I consider that these attendance thresholds allow a reasonable measure of flexibility to cater for non-attendance due to illness or other reasons. It is also proposed that the local government Bill will include provision to allow for the introduction of a salary type payment by way of regulations, the detailed arrangements of which will be worked out following the enactment of the Bill.
