Members of Clare County Council received over one million Euro in salaries and expenses in the last year.
The County Council has become one of the first local authorities in the country to make the expenses of its Councillors and Executive available online revealing a total bill of over 1 million 49 thousand Euro.
County Councillors are entitled to basic salary of 17,604 Euro, but that figure is topped up by allowances for mayors, and committee chairpersons as well as expenses to cover conferences and computer equipment among other things.
Shannon Fine Gael Councillor Tony Mulcahy is the highest earner for 2009 taking home just over 44,000 euro mainly topped up by a 13,500 euro Mayoral allowance, which also saw the former mayor and now retired Kilrush Fine Gael Councillor Madeline Taylor Quinn receive 40,858 euro.
Other high earners are PJ Kelly of Kilrush – 37,666, Ennistymon Fianna Fail Councillor Richard Nagle on 37,613, Shannon Councillor Patricia McCarthy on 36682 and East Clare Councillor Pat Hayes on 34,122.
Other councillors take home around 29 to 31 thousand each, with their basic 17 thousand salary topped up by various expenses for items like a computer equipment for Ennistymon’s Joe Arkins which cost nearly 2700 Euro , a 12hundred Euro photocopier for Killaloe’s Paschal Fitzgerald, a 237 Euro car kit and "sat nav" system for Clarecastle’s Paul Murphy and a 146 euro Blackberry phone for Ennis Councillor Brian Meaney.
Controversial conference expenses may also raise eyebrows, given that the Antrim tourism conference cost anything from 748 Euro in the case of Ennis Councillor Pat Daly to 1047 Euro for Ennistymon’s Martin Conway while East Clare’s Pat Burke and Ennis West Councillor James Breen sought 349 and 425 Euro respectively for the same conference in Killarney entitled getting a grip>
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