A FINE GAEL councillor in Dublin has decided not to claim expenses for the second year in a row.

Noel Rock has written to the Dublin City Manager Owen Keegan to inform him that he will be not be claiming the €7,000 in expenses he is entitled to.

Rock said the issue was “a matter of principle” for him.

“In 2014, I took €0 expenses and I am glad to be renewing this for the year of 2015.

“In the process of sending €7,200 tax-free back to the City of Dublin, I have made a number of suggestions as to how this money could be spent – these include provision of CCTV and the provision of small dog dirt disposal bags in our parks and the provision of further funding for homelessness services.”

Rock said that Dublin City Council alone would spend €450,000 funding councillors through unvouched expenses in 2015. He said the practice of councillors claiming expenses without having to produce receipts is “not right” as it lacks transparency.

Right across the country, workers in the private sector and the public sector are expected to produce receipts for their expenses, yet on Dublin City Council – despite a full  complement of administrative staff – we are told that it wouldn’t be possible to administrate such a scheme. This is nonsense.

“I have no issue with people getting a fair wage for fair work, but right now we have 62 councillors getting the exact same amount of expenses, despite obviously not doing the exact same amount of work,” Rock added.

So, should other councillors follow suit? Let us know what you think in the comments.

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