IN A further embarrassment to the political system, the auditor charged with overseeing the regime of expenses and allowances for TDs and Senators has complained in a strongly worded resignation letter that the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission has ignored his proposals for reform and left him with no option but to resign.
Tom O'Higgins, the chairman of the audit committee of the commission, attended his last meeting on Tuesday to explain that he felt obliged to resign the position during the summer because of the refusal of the politicians to reform their expenses and allowances regime. Coincidentally, Mr O’Higgins attended his last audit committee meeting on the day commission chairman and Ceann Comhairle John O'Donoghue decided to step down.
In his letter to Kieran Coughlan, secretary general of the commission, Mr O'Higgins expressed disappointment that some of the concerns and reservations he had raised about members'; allowances and the reimbursement of expenses without an adequate vouching scheme had not been accepted by the commission.
"This apparent lack of interest in my views appeared to me to be reinforced by the commission's decision, earlier this year, to recommend to the Minister of Finance the introduction of 'a monthly all-in standardised parliamentary allowance' without first sending it to the audit committee for comment.
"In my experience, as chairman of four other departmental or State-sector bodies' audit committees, this was quite unprecedented," said Mr O'Higgins in his letter, disclosed to The Irish Timesfollowing a Freedom of Information request.
He added that he remained concerned about the deficiencies in the present arrangements for members' allowances and the reimbursement of expenses, notwithstanding the reduction in some of the limits of the allowances and the plan for monitoring arrangements.
"I am well aware of the series of recommendations for changes to the current members' expense arrangements and the significant efforts made by you and your senior management team to reform these arrangements.
"Despite these developments, and the progress made, I continue to hold the view that, without further transparency and vouching, the current and proposed arrangements still retain the potential for reputational damage to the Houses, the commission, and the members. The current economic environment, reports of abuses of parliamentary allowances in the United Kingdom, and adverse reports and comments in the Irish media about members' expenses, serve only to reinforce my view of the need for further reform," he said.
He said that, in the circumstances, he wished to step down as chairman of the audit committee at its next meeting. That took place last Tuesday.
As far back as May, Mr O'Higgins warned that if a transparent system of vouched expenses for TDs and senators was not introduced by the end of September he would step down.
Three politicians, Senator Jim Walsh of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael TD Tom Hayes and Senator Dominic Hannigan of the Labour Party, serve on the audit committee along with accountant Greg Sparks who is the external member, and the senior Dáil official Art O'Leary.
Mr Hannigan said yesterday that reform of the expenses regime for politicians needed to be introduced immediately to restore credibility in the system. "I am concerned that the whole issue of expenses reform has taken far too long. The Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan, has had proposals in front of him for months and yet all we have seen is inaction. Now is the time to reform our system."
Mr Lenihan said yesterday he intended to bring forward a fully verifiable and vouched system of Oireachtas expenses. He said on the RTÉ News at Onehe had not yet made a final decision but expressed the belief the system proposed by the Oireachtas Commission would not meet public concern about the issue or his own insistence on full transparency.