GOVERNMENT Ministers are using personal secretarial allowances to pay for public relations advice and hire party activists as temporary employees, it has emerged.
Under a vouched allowance scheme – originally aimed at meeting additional secretarial costs – Ministers are able to pay for expenses of up to €41,000. The money comes from the Oireachtas and is not part of departmental budgets.
Payment for these services is exempt from public procurement rules, which oblige public bodies to either seek quotes or publicly tender for services.
These figures are not typically published. However, records released to The Irish Times show Ministers spent about €200,000 on public relations agencies for advice and speech-writing in the last 12 months, despite having access to press officers in the Government departments.
They include Minister of State for Small Business John Perry, who spent just over €40,000 on public relations, using the services of a former Fine Gael press officer.
Shane McEntee, Minister of State for Food, paid a similar amount to Liam Cahill Consultancy and Cahill Sports Emporium for public relations services.
In addition, Minister for Health James Reilly and Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald spent a combined total of €41,000 on PR advice and speech-writing services from the Communications Clinic. The firm’s directors are Terry Prone and chairman of the RTÉ board Tom Savage.
As well as PR, several Ministers have hired local party activists and councillors to provide either secretarial services or to operate as “temporary vouched employees”.
Minister for Public Expenditure Brendan Howlin hired George Lawlor, a Wexford-based Labour Party councillor, at a cost of €42,136 over the past year.
Similarly, Minister for Research and Innovation Seán Sherlock hired Ronan Sheahan, a Labour Party councillor based in Cork, as a “temporary employee”, at a cost of €26,128.
Ministers James Reilly, Ruairí Quinn and Minister of State Alan Kelly have used individuals closely linked to their parties for secretarial services or unspecified purposes.
Attempts to contact several Ministers for comment on the use of the secretarial allowance scheme were unsuccessful last night.
However, Dr Reilly commented recently that any money spent using the secretarial allowance was in accordance with official guidelines.
According to Oireachtas officials, a Minister can claim for secretarial assistance, PR work, IT assistance and training.
In total, figures show that 19 of the 30 Ministers and Ministers of State availed of the vouched expenses, at a total cost of about €530,700.
Those who did not avail of the scheme are entitled to lower amounts of unvouched expenses.
Ministers currently qualify for a number of separate allowances and expenses, including a “public representation allowance”, which can be used to meet expenses related to constituency offices, mobile phones, home telephones and newspaper advertising.
