I am advised that Part IV of the Local Government (Expenses of Local Authority Members) Regulations 2006 (S.I. No. 668 of 2006), together with a direction under article 16 of S.I. No 668 of 2006 issued in conjunction with Circular LG 33/06 and the guidance issued in conjunction with Circular LG 2/2010 provide the legal basis to enable local authorities to pay expenses relating to educational courses, including third-level degree courses, undertaken by elected members. I have notified the Standards in Public Office Commission of this.
Notwithstanding this , a key element of the recently published Action Programme for Effective Local Government – Putting People First , will be the review of the structures for and levels of all payments, to reduce overall costs and levels of payments to individual councillors, while having regard to the reformed sub-county structure and regional governance, and the need to ensure sufficient incentive for high-quality representation of the community. A specific element of cost reduction in this context is the need to limit expenditure in respect of training and attendance at conferences. The Action Programme proposes that each local authority will, subject to maximum thresholds set in law, determine a limit on the overall training budget and that a specific proportion of this will, in turn, be ring-fenced in respect of individual councillors. The review, which will take into account the views of the Standards Commission, will be completed to provide for the revised payments for councillors elected in 2014, at the latest.
