USI President Colman Byrne is claiming regular expenses which, in some cases, have exceeded the total grant which many of the students' union's members have to live on for a year.

According to USI expense records obtained by E&L, Byrne claimed over £400 in expenses in one 10-day period in October 1996, which is more than the total annual grant of £324 for a student living at home on partial grant assistance. He claimed almost £700 for conference expenses in a single week in March of this year, £53 more than the total grant received by a student living at home on a full adjacent rate of £647.

Byrne defends the expense claims, describing them as "very fair" and "very low".

The individual expense claims, which are an incomplete record of Byrne's claims between July 1996 and March 1997, vary in size from £89.47 to £389 and, in one case, £690. A number are undated, but cheque numbers indicate they were claimed in September or October 1996.

Byrne's election manifesto for 1996, the year in which he won the USI presidency for the first time, promised in a section titled `Financial Efficiency' that "there will be no more squandering of hard fought-for capitation funds" and warned that, in a large organisation, it was "very easy to slip into a trap of wastage".

The largest single component of the expense claims are reimbursements for mileage, at the rate of 30p per mile. In previous years, USI officers travelled mainly by train to member colleges, but Byrne's carownership has introduced a significant mileage component into USI's costs for the first time.

In the period of October 12th to 21st, 1996, Byrne made two separate expenses claims totaling £425.84. The first claim included mileage expenses of £224.10 for journeys from Dublin to Limerick and Dublin to Sligo and Westport, Co Mayo. In the same period, Byrne made a separate round trip to Bundoran, Co Donegal, listed as "Congress visit" and an additional round trip to Carlow, leading to a mileage claim of £123.90. Total mileage claim for the 10-day period: £348.

Two trips to Waterford from Dublin by Byrne and union development officer Dermot Quain on August 22nd to 25th, 1996, cost only £16 in day and overnight expenses and £25 for meals but £152.95 in mileage. Sending Byrne to the two-day "Building the Peace" conference in Belfast on February 14th to 16th, 1997, cost USI £177.50, including £76.80 in mileage, £25 in "entertaining" and £48.70 in meals.

By contrast, executive training for seven officers in Westport, Co Mayo, in August 1996 cost USI £389 in total, including accommodation for two nights for each of the officers.

Byrne also claimed a donation made to the Blessed Sacrament Church in February 1997. Under "Miscellaneous", the expense claim lists an item described as "Charity Donation Blessed Sacrament Church Childrens (sic) Tour" and a claim for £20. The church was bringing poor children on holiday and had sought donations for sleeping bags, Byrne says.

The largest single expense claim relates to last March 20th to 27th, when Byrne claimed almost £690 in expenses for attending two conferences: the annual conference of the National Union of Students in Britain and a conference of ESIB, the European Student Information Bureau, in Rotterdam.

Byrne attended the ESIB conference with USI's education officer, Malcolm Byrne, who travelled free in his capacity as a member of ESIB's executive. Colman Byrne's travel and accommodation expenses were covered by ESIB, since each member union is entitled to send a representative to the conference with assistance from European funds. According to his claim, Colman Byrne's daily expenses for the two conferences, excluding travel, added up to £465.

The expense records are incomplete; claims, if any, for November 1996, December 1996 and January 1997 are not among them. Byrne says the expense claims may represent a full month's expenses. Most cover specific dates over short terms.

The expenses represent an additional average reimbursement of £100 per week for Byrne. Such expenses are in addition to a weekly pre-tax income of about £280 which Byrne has been receiving for much of this year. In common with other full-time USI officers, Byrne receives just over £10,000 in annual salary. For much of this year, Byrne has also been receiving £80 per week from USI for the rent of a room in his flat for use by USI's regional convenors when they are in Dublin. This arrangement only came to an end earlier this month when USI's National Council forced USI to discontinue the arrangement, despite Byrne's denials that there was any conflict of interest involved.

The level of Byrne's expenses is a departure from USI's traditional approach to reimbursing its officers, which was based on the belief that USI officers should not have an income significantly in excess of that received by sabbatical officers in member colleges.

Byrne says he "absolutely" stands over his expenses. "The expenses are far too low," he says. "The fact of the matter is that 30p a mile is nothing in a 1.6 litre car." He describes his expenses as "very fair" and "very low in comparison to what I could be claiming". He says that his expenses vary, that the higher expense claims are not typical and that the reimbursement is for "the amount of stuff done in that period of time".

When asked why it had not been possible to take the train to any of the destinations listed on his expenses, Byrne says that "if you have to go somewhere, you have to go". Sometimes, he explains, other officers travelled with him or he may have been carrying materials in the car. Byrne says the expense records are openly available and expense details are known to students' union officers.

John McGrath, president of the students' union in the Waterford Institute of Technology, questioned what financial controls were operating in USI. He stressed that student officers in colleges and within USI are working very hard on behalf of their members.

Cormac Bakewell, president of the students' union in Queen's University, Belfast, says he has always considered Colman Byrne to be scrupulous in such matters. He says there may be a structural failing and a need for greater transparency on financial matters, "a more focused way of looking at the accounts". The issue of financial control was something that might have to be looked at, he said.

Ian Walsh, president of UCD students' union, which votes on possible disaffiliation from USI on Thursday, said that the union in UCD had a "very restrictive policy" on expenses "which has nothing in common with the figures you have been quoting".