Clare County Councillors have clocked up almost 80,000 euro attending conferences this year.
It’s part of almost half a million euro paid out to the 32 local respresentatives in allowances and expenses between January and June 2010, which have been released online by the local authority.
A breakdown of the 491,044.61 paid out to local elected representatives for the first six months of the year includes standard council salary payments and committee allowances, but also a total of 77,614 spent mainly on sending councillors to conferences across the country.
The events covered a variety of topics like tourism, Nuclear Challenges, Banking and Nama, child protection, media training and Being Positive in a negative climate and stress management.
Clarecastle Councillor Paul Murphy’s conference expenses were highest at 4354 euro but also include computer equipment, Cooraclare’s Bill Chambers is next highest at 3863 euro followed by Ardnacrusha Councillor Paschal Fitzgerald at 3627 euro – Ennis Councillor Johnny Flynn and Kilmaley’s Tom McNamara charged for no conferences this year.
Full details of Councillor’s Expenses and Meetings Attended can be viewed here.
