• Home
  • NAMA property for sale
  • About
  • The Developers
  • The Tranches

NAMA Wine Lake

Click the green link above for latest news and over 2,600 related articles. NAMA – National Asset Management Agency – part of Ireland's response to its banking crisis and property bubble

Feeds:
Posts
Comments
« Latest IMF report on Ireland: the NAMA situation
Of the week… »

One-stop trough: how much do Irish politicians get paid (Part 3 of 3)

March 3, 2012 by namawinelake

This is the final part of a three part series examining the rewards on offer for Irish politicians. Part One examined direct rewards in detail, Part Two attempte to put these rewards in some context and Part Three today will examine the cost to us all of political parties in the State.

Political party funding
In addition to direct rewards for being a TD, we also pay for the funding of political parties. The funding depends on the number of TDs and senators in each political party. This is how the funding works in 2011

And this is how much the political parties are expected to get from us in 2011.

So what can the political parties use the funding for?

But in practice what is the money spent on? Examining the expense returns submitted by each political party in 2010 – which I presently can’t see anywhere online and can’t post here yet – the following stood out. Yes apparently Fine Gael spent €70,000 (or €76,000, the hand-writing is not very good) on “media training”. And the second is the salary cost for FG leader Enda Kenny in 2010

So how does each party spend the money?

And do they spend it all each year? Not always which might be taken to indicate it is excessive and it is noteworthy that the allocation to parties increased by 48% between 2009 and 2010 – from €5.4m to €8m. And that the amount spent by all parties increased by 31% between 2009 and 2010 – from €5.9m to €7.8m. Austerity is plainly not for political parties in Ireland.

Issues.
Whilst each party’s spending of its political funding from us must be audited, and I see that the great and good of the Irish accounting sector feature amongst the auditors – PwC and Mazars – the audit remit is to ensure that the money claimed by the party is supported with evidence of the spend. There is no apparent attempt to verify value for money. I see that both Fine Gael and Labour paid their party leaders a salary – something not done by Fianna Fail, the Greens or Sinn Fein in 2010. The amount of funding seems to have increased significantly overall despite the economic crisis facing the country. Independents who receive nearly €42,000 per annum are not required to provide any accounting for the spend, unlike political parties.

Media reporting of political rewards

Having had the time to verify that the Twitter account above was authentic – are ye listening there, at RTE Frontline – it can be said that this tweet from one of RTE Television’s two political news correspondents dates from Wednesday 22nd February, a few days after the first of this series of blogposts, and a day or two after the post about political interference in NAMA. For those of you who might be unfamiliar with the man, David Davin Power is the rapey looking one who is always delivering his piece to camera whilst looking from side to side as if he’s doing the final check on a haircut in a barber’s mirror, perhaps to see that both sides are even; which is gas really, given the number of people who suggest his hair is mad. “Minor academic” indeed! But enough of the ad hominem. As far as David’s political reporting goes, it’s perfectly fine, reflecting over 10 years experience, there’s no finer reporter to tell you of the days political events in the Oireachtas and elsewhere. And in that, he is joined by a creaking bench of political journalists who oftentimes occupy a gallery just above An Ceann Comhairle’s head in the Dail chamber from his own and other media outlets.

The thing is that whilst researching this series of blogposts, I could not find in the print media at all nor in broadcast media any in-depth exposition of the rewards on offer to Irish politicians. And what about politicians hiring family and other members for assistance? Our neighbours in Northern Ireland require the timely notification of such appointments; mind you, they also require the timely notification of outside interests AND the income that attaches to such interests and that is the true natural of democratic transparency. On this side of the Border, such transparency is not only not officially available but there is precious little reporting on such conflicts in the media. It really does seem that the job of an Irish political reporter is to pass on the day’s events and leave it at that. Having said that, in the past couple of weeks, we have seen the Daily Mail/Mail on Sunday report on Minister Ruairi Quinn’s mileage claims with curiously rounded substantial claims in months when his diary suggested he had little official business travel, and in the past week, we have had the almost too brilliantly successful Freedom of Information request which exposed the gobsmackingly high usage of toner cartridges by Aengus O’Snodaigh. Both reports struck a chord with the public, so perhaps media companies will pursue this line. Having said that, this series of blogposts provides an overall picture of rewards on offer, and as far as I can see this picture has not been portrayed before.

Advertisement

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Reddit

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Posted in Irish economy, Politics | 8 Comments

8 Responses

  1. on March 3, 2012 at 6:51 pm What Goes Up...

    “…., David Davin Power is the rapey looking one….”

    As Freudian slips go, it’s in my top 10!


  2. on March 3, 2012 at 7:15 pm PaddyJoe

    The clasic DDP and the zombies clip ;-)


  3. on March 3, 2012 at 7:18 pm PaddyJoe

    In particular keep a close eye on the bearded zombie at around 1.08 minutes.


  4. on March 3, 2012 at 7:56 pm terence murphy

    Oddly enough, the FF and Green Leaders were actually in Govt in 2010, and earning plenty at the time. That probably accounts for the fact that they didn’t receive any payment from their respective parties. Seems obvious!


  5. on March 3, 2012 at 9:46 pm seamus

    Wow!
    “the allocation to parties increased by 48% between 2009 and 2010 – from €5.4m to €8m. And that the amount spent by all parties increased by 31% between 2009 and 2010 – from €5.9m to €7.8m. Austerity is plainly not for political parties in Ireland.”

    This too, should be on the front page of every newspaper, if their editors have a conscience. Who cares about Kate Middleton, with all due respect to her – this is Green Jersey stuff.


  6. on March 3, 2012 at 10:40 pm Michael O'Hanlon.

    Honesty in politics is much like oxygen,the higher up you go the scarcer it becomes!!


  7. on March 4, 2012 at 3:28 am sf ca writer

    http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/03/01/jer-thorp-tedxvancouver/
    heard that argument before, right here.


  8. on March 5, 2012 at 7:41 pm Pl Tell Me I'm Wrong

    @NWL The only two groups to escape austerity: the political parties and the state’s landlords.

    Excellent compilation of information that is usually fudged and fuddled when coming from official sources.

    The “special advisers” are,of course, yet another subsidy from the taxpayer to the political parties. While there has been some righteous anger at the amounts paid to these individuals, there is cause for real public concern over the fact that these largely anonymous people face no public scrutiny whatsoever (least of all from the DDPs of this world). Nobody knows what exactly their roles are in relation to policy formation. It seems clear that some of them are in postions of major power and influence yet they are answerable to no one. How these anonymous, unelected and unaccountable individuals can leap-frog to the centre of power, and what they do when they get there, should be a major concern for anyone concerned with the health of our democracy.



Comments are closed.

  • Recent Posts

    • Test – 12 November 2018
    • Farewell from NWL
    • Happy 70th Birthday, Michael
    • Of the Week…
    • Noonan denies IBRC legal fees loan approval to Paddy McKillen was in breach of European Commission commitments
    • Gayle Killilea Dunne asks to be added as notice party in Sean Dunne’s bankruptcy
    • NAMA sues Maria Byrne and Graham Byrne in Dublin’s High Court
    • Johnny Ronan finally wins a court case
  • Recent Comments

    Wisemama on Eddie Hobbs’s US “partner” fir…
    Dorothy Jones on Of the Week…
    Sean Bean on Eddie Hobbs’s US “partner” fir…
    John Foody on Of the Week…
    Wisemama on Eddie Hobbs’s US “partner” fir…
    otto on Of the Week…
    Frank Street on Of the Week…
    Wisemama on Eddie Hobbs’s US “partner” fir…
    John Gallaher on Of the Week…
    John Gallaher on Of the Week…
    who_shot_the_tiger on Eddie Hobbs’s US “partner” fir…
    Sean Bean on Eddie Hobbs’s US “partner” fir…
    otto on Of the Week…
    Brian Flanagan on Of the Week…
    Robert Browne on Gayle Killilea Dunne asks to b…
  • Twitter Updates

    • Funniest case in Irish legal history? 1. ex-Cllr Fred Forsey convicted of RECEIVING a corrupt payment 2. developer… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 4 years ago
    • Really looking forward to this at 9pm tonight, esp the first Garda on the scene. Well worth reading this background… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 4 years ago
    • Tea time on the day the president of the ECB tells us we [in Ireland] are paying more interest on our loans than th… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 4 years ago
    • “I am grateful for you to refer to Mr Sugarman...on the specific question of Unicredit, responsibility at ECB lies… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 4 years ago
    • @JMcGuinnessTD now confronts ECB about "the honest whistleblower" @WhistleIRL and his disclosures of liquidity issu… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 4 years ago
    • Details, including court documents of class action in New York against Ryanair and CEO Michael O'Leary.… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 4 years ago
    • Draghi tells @paulmurphy_TD the ECB doesn't remove govts, the people do, that's democracy. Bet the people will be m… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 4 years ago
    • Wow! Draghi says there is no net interest cost for the Anglo bonds whilst they're held by the Irish central bank. T… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 4 years ago
    Follow @namawinelake
  • Click on date for that day’s posts

    March 2012
    M T W T F S S
     1234
    567891011
    12131415161718
    19202122232425
    262728293031  
    « Feb   Apr »
  • Blog Stats

    • 5,113,863 hits

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

WPThemes.


Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • NAMA Wine Lake
    • Join 1,326 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • NAMA Wine Lake
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Copy shortlink
    • Report this content
    • View post in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: