How much does a town councillor earn?

axer

Hi everyone,

I am just wondering how do town councillors generally earn from being on a town council? Is there a standard minimum amount they are paid? Is there anywhere on the internet that I can find the amounts paid to the councillors including expenses or where that information be obtained?

lostexpectation

axer wrote:

Hi everyone,

I am just wondering how do town councillors generally earn from being on a town council? Is there a standard minimum amount they are paid? Is there anywhere on the internet that I can find the amounts paid to the councillors including expenses or where that information be obtained?

I dunno but there was interesting bit on sky news last week about the parish/comunity council in the UK which i guess are step down from town councils, there unpaid positions village by village i presume, anyone one guy was so fed up with the same "pillars of the community" being on the parish council for life he forced an election to be held and he was the only candidate for about 12 different councils on the basis that the parish/community councils shoud be scraped and he won a position on about 9 of them.

the interviewer asked him were these council not the best form of local democracy and he said not if the there were no regular elections and people expected to sit on them for life. you can imagine the type that get on these councils

anyway this guy was sitting in behind a desk at his home with a flag beside him and various framed photos, the skynews guy said he looked like the leader of tin pot dictartorship but it turns out the picture was of frankie howard and he was the partner of frankie howards manager and was living in frankie howards old house and went to plug a tour of it the public could see.

Time Magazine

I checked this out a few weeks ago. I live in Leixlip and the annual report (including finances) gave figures for payments to councillors. It was €35.26 each per week.

lostexpectation

Ibid wrote:

I checked this out a few weeks ago. I live in Leixlip and the annual report (including finances) gave figures for payments to councillors. It was €35.26 each per week.

35e !?


how much work do they do for that?

Time Magazine

I'd say that just about covers their expenses and the like so it's essentially voluntary. Done usually either for the love of the community or as a launching pad to greater things.

axer

Wow, is 35 euro the norm? I remember someone quoting the 16k mark before but I that was probably just $hite talk. I would have expected at least 100 euro a week.

Far Corfe

axer wrote:

Wow, is 35 euro the norm? I remember someone quoting the 16k mark before but I that was probably just $hite talk. I would have expected at least 100 euro a week.

Are these the councillors you mean?

http://www.mulley.net/2006/09/27/cork-county-councillors-expenses-and-salaries-for-2005/

stovelid

axer wrote:

Hi everyone,

I am just wondering how do town councillors generally earn from being on a town council? Is there a standard minimum amount they are paid? Is there anywhere on the internet that I can find the amounts paid to the councillors including expenses or where that information be obtained?

before or after donations?

Time Magazine

Donations don't mean feck all unless you're a FFer in the Dáil. All of Fine Gael got (iirc) ten grand last year, kind of a thing.

I think county councillors get paid, town councillors don't.

axer

Ibid wrote:

Donations don't mean feck all unless you're a FFer in the Dáil. All of Fine Gael got (iirc) ten grand last year, kind of a thing.

I think county councillors get paid, town councillors don't.

So they just get expenses then?

Victor

Town (and borough) councillors are at a lower level to city and county councillors.

Time Magazine

axer wrote:

So they just get expenses then?

I'm only familiar with my Town Council, but I imagine it's the same nationwide.

Here are my Town Council's spendings for 2005. The first item is €16,500 for Councillors’ attendance allowance. There are nine members, leaving (€16500 / 9) €1833.33 each. Divided by 52 for weekly allowance is €35.26, i.e. the figure I quoted earlier.

Now maybe some of ye can consider that a wage, but I'd consider it closer to expenses.