Friday, March 05, 2010

Green Gormley: Where's my limo?

http://www.tribune.ie/news/article/2009/oct/11/green-gormley-wheres-my-limo/

The Sunday Tribune has also obtained details of Gormley's domestic expense claims whilst a minister at the Department of the Environment in 2008 and as a TD in 2006.

In November 2008, Gormley claimed back €12,638 for some research he had conducted in his Dublin South East constituency with Red C, as part of his special secretarial allowance.

It is understood that this research related to attitudes to the Green Party and was entitled 'Party Review Qualitative Research October 2008'.

Gormley's spokesman said: "This research was on political attitudes in Dublin South East to assist the minister in policy formulation. This expenditure is permissible under the expenditure guidelines and fully receipted."

In the same year, the minister also claimed €8,796 for a redesign of his website, with a further €169.40 spent on maintenance and registration.

Printing of leaflets cost more than €6,500 while distributing the 40,000 flyers around Dublin as part of a "constituency campaign" cost the taxpayer more than €4,500.

The Green Party leader had already spent €217.80 advertising in a Polish newspaper looking for people to deliver the leaflets.

Other claims made by Gormley include €2,222.04 for maintaining accommodation for his secretarial assistant at Fownes Street in Temple Bar.

In 2006, the last full year for which the Green Party leader was in opposition, Gormley claimed €14,336 in a daily travel allowance, despite living just a couple of miles from the Dáil and cycling to work almost every day.

For the entire year, Gormley was paid €37,800 in unvouched and untaxed expenses on top of his already healthy salary of more than €100,000. To start with, the Green TD was paid €8,227, which came in the form of 12 monthly payments of €685.

On top of that, the Green TD appears to have claimed for attendance at the Dáil on 188 occasions although two sets of official documents seem to contradict each other.

Gormley also travelled to New York during the year an Aids conference as part of committee work and was issued with a float of €903 to cover the costs of the trip.

It subsequently emerged that the embassy in the United States had paid for his accommodation and they reclaimed €532 from him.

A letter from the Committees Travel Section said: "You were issued with an imprest [an advance] of €903, which was calculated on the basis of accommodation costs and subsistence due to you for the trip.

"However, as the embassy paid for your accommodation and part of your trip related to private travel your imprest exceeded your expenses claim by €532.40."

According to the documents, Gormley made a final claim of €4,444 in a constituency office maintenance allowance for the premises at Fownes Street.

The minister's spokesman said Gormley had specifically made his expense claims more transparent by stating exactly what expenditure he had incurred rather than using the "unvouched" system which most Oireachtas members use.

He also reiterated Gormley's call last week for a major overhaul of expenses, particularly with regards to expenditure not backed by receipts.

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