City Councillor's Expenses

Robbo

City Hall have made available (in Excell format) the Councillors expenses for the year. Topping the table is Boards favourite, Mike Crowe, with €61,654.05 with most councillors in the €20-30k bracket.

Conferences remain a notable area for expenses, with The Westminster Media Forum, the National Gas Vehicles Conference and the AGM of Nuclear Free Ireland all making an appearance.

Your tax euros at work people, have at it.

Wompa1

Not shocking, they will continue to spend more than most people make in a year on BS conferences and events that are no more than ego stroking for them.

How much was Micky D claiming in expenses? Nobody batted an eyelid. He rose through the ranks and is president now.

The city, just like the country is toxic. There's corruption on every level. From the asylum seekers who work when they legally shouldn't. Students claiming the grant and not attending lectures. People on the dole working for cash in hand. Pubs buying booze in grocery stores not intended for resale and bumping up the price. Local merchants not marking the pricing of their goods accurately. Liqour licenses, lottery license etc. being provided with a golden handshake. Oil company kartels. The colleges closing ranks if anybody questions their wrong doings. Taxi drivers double registering vehicles. Employers taking advantage of the down turn to strip their workers of their rights knowing they won't bite the hand that feeds them for fear of being unemployed.

The people in the council lead by example and many others follow and manipulate and sap every last cent they can get from the easiest source no matter if it's right or wrong.

Time to disband the council, re-structure the public service from the ground up and pressure private companies and keep an eye on them. Also enforcing the laws might be a good idea.

/rant

Robbo

Wompa1 wrote: »

Time to disband the council, re-structure the public service from the ground up and pressure private companies and keep an eye on them. Also enforcing the laws might be a good idea.

/rant

I'm also becoming more like Ron Swanson as the years progress.

snubbleste

Robbo wrote: »

I'm also becoming more like Ron Swanson as the years progress.

Who?
I'm too jaded to comment on expenses excepted to say they need to be reduced and triple audited.

Iwannahurl

In keeping with the spirit of this thread so far, may I suggest electronically tagging Councillors so that we always know when they actually attend those "conferences", as opposed to just showing up at the door, signing in, buggering off and then claiming subsistence and mileage.

Robbo

snubbleste wrote: »

Who?

A character in sitcom Parks & Rec. He's a libertarian who heads a local government department which he believes should be abolished and it's functions taken over by the Chuck E Cheese corporation.

nuac

I thought by now Councillors were shamed into not claiming expenses.

Most of these conferences are a waste of time and money. They should all be abolished.

Mrs OBumble

Wompa1 wrote: »

The city, just like the country is toxic. There's corruption on every level. From the asylum seekers who work when they legally shouldn't. Students claiming the grant and not attending lectures. People on the dole working for cash in hand. Pubs buying booze in grocery stores not intended for resale and bumping up the price. Local merchants not marking the pricing of their goods accurately. Liqour licenses, lottery license etc. being provided with a golden handshake. Oil company kartels. The colleges closing ranks if anybody questions their wrong doings. Taxi drivers double registering vehicles. Employers taking advantage of the down turn to strip their workers of their rights knowing they won't bite the hand that feeds them for fear of being unemployed.

The people in the council lead by example and many others follow

Do you actually see the councillors as leading?

Or do you see them as simply following the social mores in this country?

I'm far more concerned about Mick Wallace regarding himself as a fit and proper person to be in the Dail than I am about Padraig Conneeley having some conference fees paid for him when perhaps he didn't attend the conferences.

But I have no doubt that if there was an election tomorrow, Mick would top the poll, due to the attitudes here - toxic is a fantastic word for them, IMHO.

Wompa1

JustMary wrote: »

Do you actually see the councillors as leading?

Or do you see them as simply following the social mores in this country?

I'm far more concerned about Mick Wallace regarding himself as a fit and proper person to be in the Dail than I am about Padraig Conneeley having some conference fees paid for him when perhaps he didn't attend the conferences.

But I have no doubt that if there was an election tomorrow, Mick would top the poll, due to the attitudes here - toxic is a fantastic word for them, IMHO.

What does Conneeley do to warrant those expenses. He's now a member of the board for the Hospitals if I'm correct? All he has ever done is piss and moan about how crappy the hospital is without offering any ways to improve it. But people think oh at least he's voicing the opinion of the little guy. It's BS. How is he any different to the people that camped in the Square? Both barking without any ideas or focus and getting an income from those dumb enough to work..

Oh and he'd show up at some of the construction sites to do some rubber neckin' and then walk around shop st for a gawk. Give me that job please. That's how I'd spend a lot of my days off...

Mick is a P.O.S but his level of corruption being so extreme compared to these clowns doesn't lessen what others are doing. There's right and wrong. All of what I had mentioned is wrong. People doing it know it's wrong, they do it anyway. It's sh!t

But you are right..I see them as leaders somewhat (not very authoritive leaders unless god forbid there's a f'kin water fight going on or something) but they get their bad habits from further up the sh!t pipe. Galway is in serious trouble

Zzippy

I've seen councillors turning up at these conferences, 4 piling out of one car, signing in and staying just long enough to be polite, leaving before lunch and heading off home again. Cue 4 separate claims for mileage and subsistence, even though lunch is included in the conference fee.

The Black Crowes attended 3 conferences together last year, in Donegal, Dublin and Wexford, and claimed over €3k between them in expenses for those 3 days. Surely they could have car pooled and saved the taxpayer a large portion of that??? No, I'm sure they travelled in separate cars each and every time... :rolleyes:

Mrs OBumble

Wompa1 wrote: »

What does Conneeley do to warrant those expenses.

Ironically, I quoted him 'cos he actually DIDN'T claim expenses for conferences: there's a note saying that the council pay his registration fees, but that he didn't submit any receipts for anything else.

Personally, I dislike his grandstanding / bullying a lot. But he went up a mm in my eyes when I saw that.

But I agree with your overall thesis ... and I think that Ireland desperately needs a leader who can influence public morality for the better.

Tym

I'm going to look like such a knob if someone can come up woth an instant link, but ,in all fairness, how's someone meant to know that that's legit? Anybody can write an excel sheet?:)

swiftman

on the galway city site so not a fake http://www.galwaycity.ie/AllServices/YourCouncil/CouncilMembers/140512_01.xls

Tym

on the galway city site so not a fake http://www.galwaycity.ie/AllServices.../140512_01.xls

Cool, thanks:D

Seaneh

Wompa1 wrote: »

Pubs buying booze in grocery stores not intended for resale and bumping up the price.

In fairness, as long as they pay the vat on their sales, why do you give a ****e where they buy their stock from?

Here's a little bit of reality for you.

Right now, in Tesco, you can buy beers like Goose Island IPA for €150 a bottle, tesco are buying this beer from about €2 per bottle and undercutting all their competition, they use the same supplier as O'Briens, Molloy's, Carry Out, well, just about every in Ireland who sells craft beers really.

If I was a publican, and I was feeling the pinch, I'd find it very difficult to not think "feck it, sure I can get it cheaper in Tesco than I can whole sale, so why shouldn't I?".

Tesco do not give a flying **** if Bars etc are buying it from them, they are using it as a loss leader to increase footfall.

They do it with almost all the beers they sell.

If I ran a bar and I know I could get bottles of bud/miller/whatever else for less than a euro a bottle from tesco rather than over €1.50 per bottle from a wholesalers, I'd be down in tesco and buy enough to last me a month.

Red_Wake

Those expenses include the councillors' salaries you twunt of an OP.

Mod note: user banned for being uncivil

Unrealistic

Seaneh wrote: »

In fairness, as long as they pay the vat on their sales, why do you give a ****e where they buy their stock from?

Whenever I see a bottle in a pub with a 'mulitpack' label on it I wonder do they actually pay VAT on their sales? Or do the divide their sales between official sales of products bought from wholesalers, which they declare, and cash sales of products bought with cash from a supermarket or Musgraves, which disappears under the counter?

Seaneh wrote: »

Tesco do not give a flying **** if Bars etc are buying it from them, they are using it as a loss leader to increase footfall.

Tesco do actually give a flying **** if bars are buying these beers that they are selling at (or below) cost to drive footfall. If bar owners are buying up the stock then there is going to be less stock left to actually drive footfall from regular customers. Unlike regular customers, bar owners are not going to be spending the same amount again on regular priced items while they are there.

Seaneh wrote: »

If I ran a bar and I know I could get bottles of bud/miller/whatever else for less than a euro a bottle from tesco rather than over €1.50 per bottle from a wholesalers, I'd be down in tesco and buy enough to last me a month.

I don't know that Tesco would actually let you buy up beer in those quantities. Aldi and Lidl, for example are very open about the fact that they will turn you away at the till if they judge that you are purchasing for commercial activity. They occasionally have signs up warning about this. I don't know at what point you would attract attention in Tesco but I imagine the manager would be having a quiet word if you tried to buy up their loss leaders in large quantities.