Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 27 February 2018
731. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government the cost of the local councillors representational allowance and the local councillors annual allowance for each of the years 2011 to 2018. [9531/18]
View answerThe Representational Payment for local authority elected members recognises the work that councillors volunteer to undertake when they stand for election and subsequently serve their community.
The following tables set out the annual amounts of the Representational Payment for elected members of local authorities over the period 2011 to 2018, showing adjustments made in accordance with the relevant provisions of the FEMPI Acts 2009-2015 and the Public Service Pay and Pensions Act 2017.
|
Local authority |
From 1 January 2010 |
From 1 July 2013 |
From 1 April 2017 |
From 1 January 2018 |
|
County Councils, City Councils, and City and County Councils |
€16,724 |
€16,565 |
€16,645 |
€16,891 |
|
Local authority |
From 1 January 2010 |
From 1 July 2013 until the dissolution of town councils under the 2014 local government reforms |
|
Borough councils, and the town councils of Athlone, Bray, Dundalk, Ennis and Tralee |
€8,362 |
€8,283 |
|
Other rating town councils together with the non-rating town councils of Balbriggan, Droichead Nua, Greystones, Leixlip, Mullingar, Portlaoise and Shannon |
€4,181 |
€4,141 |
|
All other non-rating town councils |
€2,281 |
€2,253 |
The total estimated cost of the Representational Payment was approx. €17.9 million per annum prior to the implementation of the 2014 local government reforms and approx. €15.7 million per annum thereafter. This will increase to approx. €16 million for 2018 following the increase to the Representational Payment from 1 January 2018.
Elected members of local authorities also receive a composite annual expenses allowance designed to defray in a structured way reasonable expenses incurred by them in attending meetings associated with their council business. This is calculated using a formula based on the distance from their home to the council offices, standard civil service travel and subsistence rates and a notional number of meetings which a local authority would be expected to hold in a year based on 4 meeting bands.
Under section 142(3)of the Local Government Act 2001, as amended, local authorities are required to maintain public registers of attendances at meetings and payments made to elected members. This information may be viewed on each local authority website.
My Department has estimated, based on a minimum travel distance of 16km from Council Headquarters to a member's residence, that, prior to the implementation of the 2014 local government reforms, the total annual cost of expenses allowance payments made to 1,627 elected members in 114 local authorities was approx. €6 million per annum. The total estimated minimum cost following the implementation of the 2014 reforms is €5.2 million per annum paid to 949 elected members in 31 local authorities.
