O'Keeffe claimed €205,368 as junior minister

MINISTER FOR Education Batt O’Keeffe claimed expenses totalling €205,368 during his four years as a minister of state, the highest amount listed for any Government minister in information released to Fine Gael TD George Lee.

Former minister of state Seán Power had expenses of €186,295 from 2004 to 2008 while he was a minister of state for health, subsequently in the Justice department and then in Communications, Energy and Natural Resources.

Former minister of state for health Dr Tom Moffatt claimed €169,889 from 1997 to 2005, while former Progressive Democrats minister of state for health Tim O’Malley had expenses of €167,223 over the five-year period from 2002 to 2007.

Former minister of state for justice Mary Wallace claimed expenses totalling €166,000 in the four years from 1998 to 2002.

A spokesman for Mr O’Keeffe, who was in the Department of the Environment at the time, said that the Minister had done an “enormous amount of travel over the four-year period, mainly because of the Tidy Towns competition and the travel and subsistence would reflect that level of travel”.

He added that many people did not realise that junior ministers did not receive a State car and would have significant costs.

Mr Lee himself cautioned against being definitive about the information because Ministers were entitled to certain ministerial allowances for subsistence and travel.

But he pointed to Mr O’Keeffe’s expenses and noted that the overall figures supplied to him were very incomplete because “you only have to look at the expenses listed for John O’Donoghue for his five years as minister for arts, sport and tourism [€16,296.69]” to see they did not include controversial figures listed for accommodation and travel for which he eventually apologised.

The Dublin South TD had asked each department in a written parliamentary question “the amount that has been claimed in expenses by each senior and junior Minister in his/her department from 1997 to 2008” and the reason they were claimed. A number of departments supplied no figures and were still compiling them because of the “time provided” including the Departments of Defence, Agriculture and Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Tánaiste Mary Coughlan said her department’s financial management systems had changed and that it would not be feasible to supply figures prior to 2002.

Meanwhile, Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin pointed out that the current electronic system had only been in place since 2004 and it was not possible in the time available to retrieve comprehensive information for the earlier years.

Some departments provided yearly information and others provided it on a monthly basis.

Figures for Minister for Social and Family Affairs Mary Hanafin’s predecessors for travel and subsistence totalled just €41,755.25 from 1997 to 2008. Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan, in a reply to Mr Lee, said that in Ireland, Ministers “may claim the vouched cost of a hotel room, including tax and up to 15 per cent for services charges and a subsistence allowance of €72.66 per night,” a reduction of 25 per cent since March.

Mr Lenihan had reduced the Oireachtas expense allowance generally by 10 per cent and mileage by 25 per cent, but wanted further discussion before implementation the legislation for a single composite payment for TDs and Senators.