PAC hears details of €317k extra allowance on top of President's salary
The office of the president is receiving a €317,000 extra allowance to its budget every year for State dinners, visitor hospitality and other matters without any clear oversight or auditing on how it is spent.
The Dáil's public accounts committee was told of the previously unknown situation during a controversial emergency meeting on Tuesday.
Speaking just 24 hours before presidential race nominations close and President Michael D Higgins officially launches his own campaign, Fianna Fáil TD Marc Mac Sharry questioned what the "slush fund" €317,000 allowance was spent on.
However, the State's financial watchdog, comptroller and auditor general Seamus McCarthy, and Department of the Taoiseach secretary general Martin Fraser both said they have no responsibility for examining the fee.
Mr McCarthy told the PAC:
"It's an allowance, not a salary. I don't audit that. It doesn’t prescribe what it is used for other than it is a payment made to the president."
A spokesperson for the office of the president told the Irish Examiner the allowance was introduced 80 years ago and was increased to €317,000 a year in 1998, a figure that has not changed.
He said the fund is used to pay for hospitality for the 20,000 visitors to Aras an Uachtarain every year, State dinners for foreign dignitaries and numerous other events relating to the office.
However, despite the partial explanation, no further breakdown on how the significant levels of public money have been released.
Mr Mac Sharry, who later provoked an angry response from Fine Gael TD Kate O'Connell for labelling the extra money a "slush fund", said the money is being handed over "blind" for "unknown purposes and unknown items".
The situation emerged as it was separately confirmed the office of the president failed to undergo any independent audit until earlier this year because no audit team was set up until 2014.
The PAC meeting took place after warnings last week the hearing could be "unconstitutional" and may be politically motivated.
Asked by Labour TD Alan Kelly if he received any "legal advice" from attorney general Seamus Woulfe before agreeing to answer PAC questions, Mr Fraser said no as they both had the same view of the meeting.
Asked by Mr Kelly how he would know that, Mr Fraser said:
"Ah, I just guessed. As a former member of the Government, you'll know osmosis is a very powerful thing."
No internal audits of presidential spending levels took place before Spring 2014 and only a small number of reviews have taken place in the subsequent four years, it has emerged.
The secretary general of the Department of the Taoiseach Martin Fraser revealed the level of scrutiny during a controversial emergency meeting of the Dáil's public accounts committee this morning.
Speaking at the meeting just 24 hours before nominations close for the presidential race, Mr Fraser told unaligned Independent TD Catherine Connolly he established the internal reviews in Spring 2014.
Mr Fraser declined to say why he did so other than to say: "I took a decision it should be done" and confirmed when asked no internal spending audits occurred in any year before that point.
Mr Fraser separately told Ms Connolly and Fine Gael TD Alan Farrell there was a significant delay in holding the internal audit reviews after Spring 2014 because of a "very sad personal matter".
Mr Fraser repeatedly used this reason to not clarify the matter further, saying: "I really don't want to talk about this too much".
However, he eventually said there have been three meetings of the internal audit team since February this year involving a Department of the Taoiseach official, a presidential office official and a retired public servant, but was unable to provide dates.
The State's independent financial watchdog, comptroller and auditor general Seamus McCarthy - who attends all PAC meetings - also told the meeting this morning the presidential office hands back roughly 10% of its budget to the Exchequer every year.
He said in the latest year examined by his office this amounted to a return of €287,000.
However, this figure does not include more than seven other areas which relate to presidential spending and are overseen by Government departments, including Foreign Affairs, Defence and other matters.
A number of PAC members - including Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy, Fine Gael TD Alan Farrell and Sinn Féin TD David Cullinane - raised concerns over the timing of the PAC's presidential spending review.
However, they each said there is a genuine need for greater public scrutiny and transparency when it comes to presidential spending.
During an exchange between Fianna Fáil TD Bobby Alyward and Mr Fraser, Mr Alyward attempted to explain the reason for why the presidential spending levels are being examined now, saying it is "because there's a [presidential] election coming up".
Noting the ongoing and disputed claims the review is politically motivated in order to undermine President Michael D Higgins, Mr Fraser responded dryly: "I thought it wasn't because of that."
