Councillors’ Christmas cheer after vote to top up expenses

Bradley Bytes – a sort of political column by Dara Bradley

It’s only the Halloween Bank Holiday weekend but there was a certain amount of Christmas cheer evident at City Hall last Monday.
A vote was unanimously passed to give city businesses a grant of €150,000 to put on “an iconic festive light and colour experience” this December.

The proposal includes new decorations, lights and projections onto well-known buildings, and is all part of traders’ ambitious plans to make Galway the “Christmas Capital of Ireland”.
And city councillors were giddy with excitement to get the good news out there, immediately.
Like children running to their parents’ bedroom on Christmas morning to tell them what Daidí na Nollag had left under the tree, several elected members took to social media to inform followers how instrumental they were in safeguarding the grant. Insecure much?
Meanwhile, we suspect the cause of the jovial spirits at Monday’s City Council meeting had more to do with councillors voting to top-up their allowance and expense budget.
Funnily enough, not one of them rushed to Facebook and Twitter to inform your good selves about this early Christmas present they gifted themselves.
Indeed, Cllr Mike Crowe (FF), with tongue firmly in cheek, said what the rest of his colleagues were thinking – he joked to Chief Executive Brendan McGrath that they would prefer not to discuss the top-up “until the press go!”
So, here’s what they don’t want you to know. Under the current rules, each councillor has an annual budget of €3,722.50 for conferences, seminars and approved training. That breaks down as €3,022 for training, plus €700 for attendance at conferences and events.
Not all members use this. Some wish to exceed it. Any councillor who wants to exceed the allocation, may request to take a portion of another councillor’s allocation. The problem was, many councillors who don’t use it, are unwilling to give the extra lolly to their rivals.
On Monday, they voted to increase the €3,722.50 to €4,500 per councillor per year. A nice round figure, you’ll agree. And an increase of €777.50 or 21%. Not bad if you can get it.
They justified this by arguing there is “generally unused monies” leftover in the overall conference/seminar/training budget.
But as Cllr Collette Connolly (Ind) pointed out, if all 18 elected members did use their full allocation, then the Council would have to eat into its budget for other services to cover the overrun.
The vote to increase allowances by 21% simply rubberstamped a report from the Council’s procedure’s committee. The committee surprise, surprise, is made up of councillors. Have they ever recommended a cut to allowances?
Don’t be ridiculous – turkeys don’t vote for Christmas.
Money for jam
Not content with increasing the yearly individual budget for training, seminars and conferences by 21% to €4,500, city councillors also agreed to pay themselves an additional €1,000.
This extra stipend is an allowance payable for membership of ‘Area Committees’.
Chief Executive of the City Council Brendan McGrath said it will only be paid “once a meeting has taken place in the areas”.
And so, councillors resolved on Monday to meet in their areas – City West, City Central and City East – ASAP.
We all look forward to reading the minutes of those “area meetings” that will cost ratepayers/taxpayers an additional €18,000 per annum.
The boom is back, and it’s getting boomier!

For more Bradley Bytes, see this week’s Galway City Tribune