The Dáil Public Accounts Committee is to be asked to investigate increases in press office spending by 10 government departments, coinciding with the run-up to this year's general election.
The issue is being raised by Fine Gael TD Damien English who said yesterday: "This touches on corruption and is nothing less than a total misuse of taxpayers' money."
Newly appointed Public Accounts Committee chairman Bernard Allen of Fine Gael said: "It would be disturbing if scarce resources were used to beef up the public relations of departments and ministers in the period immediately before the election. It is something that we will examine over the coming months when we scrutinise each department's expenditure."
Official figures show that in the second quarter of 2007, press office spending increased by 197.7 per cent, compared with the first quarter, in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment; 32.3 per cent in the Department of Education and Science; 27.3 per cent in the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government; and 26.7 per cent in the Department of Social and Family Affairs.
Six other departments also increased their press office expenditure. The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment said: "The variations in expenditure in the quarters reflect a variation in the intensity of the press office activity."
In its response to a parliamentary question from Mr English, the Department of the Environment said: "The increase in expenditure in quarter two was due mainly to payment in lieu of accumulated annual leave."
A spokesman for the Department of Education and Science told The Irish Times: "Claims by some of the staff, due for overtime worked in the first quarter of 2007, were not submitted for payment until the start of the second quarter. Another factor in the increased cost of running the press office in the second quarter is due to there being an extra pay date for fortnightly paid staff (in other words six pay dates in first quarter and seven pay dates in second quarter). There were also increases of 2 per cent under the Towards 2016 pay agreement implemented."
A Department of Social and Family Affairs spokeswoman said
reasons for the increase included:
1) "Salary costs - there was an additional pay fortnight in
May which incurred additional salary costs in quarter two (but not
over the entire year)";
2) "An additional member of staff commenced working in the press office in February 2007 . . . salary costs for this staff member would not have been fully reflected until quarter two of 2007;
3) "The annual licensing fee payable to Newspaper Licensing Ireland Limited for reproducing newspaper extracts was paid in June. "
Each department supplied the information in response to parliamentary questions from Mr English who said "the figures show that a majority of ministers cross the line and abuse their departmental staffing arrangements for political gain".
A number of departments, including agriculture, health, communications and the office of the Taoiseach decreased spending in the second quarter.