Fermanagh & Omagh Councillors cost £708,000 in allowance and expenses

Figures released by Fermanagh and Omagh District Council (FODC) show that councillors received £569,400 in basic allowances. This salary of £14,295 is intended to recognise the time commitment of all Councillors, including meetings with officers and constituents and other approved duties.

In addition, £74,270 was paid out in mileage to and from meetings and conferences; £25,000 in special responsibility allowances was paid to 18 councillors who chair committees or lead their party grouping within the council; £15,000 was paid the Council Chair and vice chair; £6,960 was paid to nine councillors for PCSP attendance; £840 was paid in other ‘expenses’; £1,053 was paid for telephone and broadband and £431 was paid to Independent Councillor Sorcha McAnespy for dependant carer’s allowance. 

Councillors are permitted to claim up to 65 pence per mile, plus five pence per passenger. If they are staying overnight, they have an accommodation allowance of £100.70 for the British Isles and £122.45 for London.

Sinn Féin Erne East Councillor Brian McCaffrey claimed the most in travel expenses, pocketing £5,603 for travelling to meetings and conferences. He said this reflects the number of committees, working groups and outside bodies that he sits on and insisted that the Councillors were value for money.

Brian McCaffrey

“A lot of it (the expenses) comes from the amount of outside bodies I sit on, including NILGA (the Northern Ireland Local Government Association), the Clones Erne East Partnership, the Waste Programme Board, Fermanagh and Omagh Local Action Group, Peace IV and ICBAN,” said Councillor McCaffrey.

“I also sit on five Council Committees - Environmental Services, Regeneration and Community, Policy and Resources, Planning and I am Chair of the Audit Panel. I sit on two working groups - Remembrance and Commemoration and Estimates and I would attend planning site meetings, training seminars and LAG funding assessments,” he stated.

Councillor McCaffrey estimates that he works an average of 32 hours per week and attends between 10 and 20 meetings per month. He claimed that similar mileages were being hit by former Fermanagh District Council members who covered a smaller landmass than the new Fermanagh and Omagh district.

“People generally don’t realise the amount of time Councillors put into meetings, particularly those who don’t have a full time job and are free during the day,” he said.

Asked if he would consider car sharing in a bid to cut his expense costs, Councillor McCaffrey replied: “It’s not that practical coming from Rosslea. My nearest Councillor is Sheamus Greene and he would be driving the bus a lot of the time which doesn’t suit me if I want to get to a meeting early to prepare. I am deputy Sinn Fein group leader on the Council and would sometimes have to stand in for Marty McColgan.”

In terms of total allowances and expenses, former Council Chair, SDLP Councillor Mary Garrity topped the list of Councillors with a total payment of £24,407. This included her £8,139 Chairman’s allowance. Next was Councillor McCaffrey with a total of £22,009, followed by UUP Councillor Alex Baird who was paid a total of £20,300.

Fermanagh and Omagh District Council spent £15,000 on Councillors attending conferences. This included £543 on overnight stays for six councillors (£124, John Coyle; £124 Thomas O’Reilly; £124, Chris Smyth; £59, Debbie Coyle; £55, Stephen McCann and £55, Victor Warrington).

Almost £3,000 was spent by Sinn Féin Enniskillen Councillor Debbie Coyle on attending conferences.

Debbie Coyle

The next highest amount in conference costs was £1,000 totted up by Omagh Independent Councillor Josephine Deehan. Seventeen councillors did not attend any conferences during the year.

Commenting on her bill for attending conferences, Councillor Debbie Coyle said: “I believe the money you refer to related to conferences I attended which were in the main around Diversity as I am Fermanagh and Omagh District Council’s Diversity Champion. They also relate to Planning which is very important to attend given the new powers councillors have. It also includes the attendance at PCSP meetings and a course in Community Planning.”

The Councillor, who works as a nursing auxiliary, said: “It is important for councillors to receive and/or update training, the same way as you would in any other job or role. For example as a carer I have to update my moving and handling and vulnerable adult training etc. Nurses, doctors, retailers and so on all have to update their training. It’s also important as a Councillor to keep up to date with issues such as housing, welfare, planning and so on as these are the issues that constituents come to us with on a daily basis and doing this will sometimes include training and conference events.”