*Cllr Tony O’Brien (FF). Photograph: Eamon Ward.
CLARE’S highest paid councillor last year insists he is “good value for money” while a total of €1,192,106.46 was dished out among the county’s 28 councillors.
As per the Register of Councillor Expenses for 2023, Cllr Tony O’Brien (FF) who was Mayor of Clare last received a total amount of €57,751.56.
All twenty eight councillors receive a renumeration payment of €28,992.94 with the rest of their fees made up of various expenses for training, conferences and allowances for serving as Cathaoirleach of Municipal Districts and Strategic Policy Committees.
Of the total figure for the Killaloe representative, €9,582.50 was for the Cathaioirleach allowance while €6,773.87 was an annual allowance.
Current Leas Cathaoirleach, Cllr Gabriel Keating (FG) was next in line with a total figure of €51,030.81 followed by sitting Mayor, Cllr Joe Cooney (FG) at €49,723.82, Cllr John Crowe (FG) on €48,364.11 and Cllr Clare Colleran Molloy (FF) with €47,571.79.
For foreign travel, Cllr O’Brien claimed the most (€1,803.47) followed by Cllr Cooney (€1,646.57) and Cllr Pat Daly (FF) (€1,024.64).
Departing representative, Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) did not claim any additional expenses to the renumeration payment. He first elected in 2004 on a ‘no junkets no expenses’ platform.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Cllr O’Brien stated, “Last year as Mayor of Clare, I toured the county extensively and on some occasions many times a day between North Clare, South Clare, East Clare and West Clare. I must say that I really enjoyed my time as Mayor, it was an honour and a privilege to represent my community and what it enabled me to do was interact with communities and meet people who volunteer with their communities, I was on the go day and night, I hope people that I met and got around to appreciated the time and effort I put in. It was an honour.
“Absolutely I stand over everything we did and that we did in the promotion of our county and the selling of our county, we must put it in context and we were coming out of a very difficult time after two years. Co Clare derives an awful lot of its income from its tourism industry and what we have to offer, I will say this passionately and I believe it passionately we have one of the best tourist offerings for visitors and one of the best offerings to attract people into the county, people won’t just come because they have that, we have to market it and sell it, to tell people what we have, for sure I think we get good value for money”.
He defended the foreign trips that see elected representatives travel to Milwaukee and the St Patrick’s Day trip to the United States of America. “There is a myth, any trip that any councillor that I know has been on and any official from Clare County Council work very hard, certainly there is a bit of downtime in some of the trips but just a little bit of downtime, it might seem glamorous but there is an awful lot of hard work. If you are on a trade mission in selling our enterprises with the enterprise office or tourism office, you start at 8am in the morning and you are still going at 11pm meeting delegations, state agencies and people in the tourism industry, it can be pretty hard work but I have to say it was work I was honoured and proud to carry out, I think we did it very well and I know self praise is no praise. I look back on my year as Mayor with absolutely no regrets”.
Speaking on The Electoral Chair, Cllr Pat Burke (FG) defended those who went on foreign trips to promote the county. “In my fifteen years in Clare County Council, I’ve never stepped foot on an aeroplane unlike the Mayors, obviously I’ve never been Mayor. From a tourism perspective I can see the value in the promotion that is going on”.
