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MINISTERS AND TDs paid out more than €186,000 last year through a little-known allowance to cover the cost of public relations, communications, and digital marketing.
Payments under the Special Secretarial Allowance included a sum of €15,375 to Prize Nerd Limited, the company of the well-known writer and actress Stefanie Preissner.
She was contracted by Anne Rabbitte, a Minister of State at the Department of Health with five separate payments of €3,075 made to Preissner’s firm through the scheme in 2023.
In the past, some ministers and TDs have made use of the allowance to hire family members or colleagues from their political party.
However, the Oireachtas – at a time when politicians have been clamouring from greater transparency in organisations like RTÉ – has adopted a policy of redacting details of all expenditure unless the money is paid to a company rather than an individual.
The allowance was used by multiple senior officeholders in 2023 with Minister Helen McEntee paying around €8,600 to a company called GN Digital Marketing.
Access to details of a further €9,200 in expenditure by McEntee has been refused by the Oireachtas on the basis that it is personal information.
Payments by junior ministers included €10,000 to Communique International by Jack Chambers and €1,530 to the UCD English Language Academy by Jennifer Carroll MacNeill.
Transport Minister Eamon Ryan paid €3,056 to Sherpa Event Production while the minister at the Office of Public Works Patrick O’Donovan incurred costs of €2,200 with a company called R&F Marketing.
The former minister Robert Troy also paid €1,500 to Yewtree Infotainment, according to records released under FOI by the Oireachtas.
However, details of the majority of the €186,759 that was spent by ministers and TDs under the scheme have been withheld apart from the amount involved.
Minister of State Hildegarde Naughton paid more than €20,000 to service providers under the Special Secretarial Allowance but the identities of those paid have been blacked out in the records.
Similarly, Junior Minister Thomas Byrne incurred costs of over €16,000 through the scheme but no further detail has been provided with any identifying information withheld.
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I’ll believe it when I see it
It’s not going to happen. Europes grudge against ireland on corporation tax is not our manufacturing sector, it’s the tax haven IFSC. Why are so many European banks setup there… To avoid tax. Sadly it’s a sector the will be axed as countries try to fight their defecit. Just look at Banco Di Italia in IFSC.. Italy wants this bank to operate in italy not ireland. The storm is brewing. I can’t see many new jobs coming.
He is full of sh!t. He has had his day in the sun, the next twelve months will expose him for the puppet he is.
Here here!
Jesus Enda, I thought you would have learnt about the pitfalls of promises last week!
Great news! Enda Kenny is really delivering the goods.
Is former footballer and teacher enda kenny running the IFSC now?
Sure that’s great the newly graduated nurses/teachers will have no trouble getting a job now!!!!!
Perhaps they should have chosen another career rather than planning to live of the state.. without IFSC jobs in private sector how do you paid for nurses & teachers etc…
So there are thousands of IT jobs still not filled in Dublin due to skills shortage and because the whole of Ireland doesn’t really want to live in Dublin, yet they will probably create another 1000 of those 10,000 in IT.
Great if they can create 1000 more jobs there never mind 10.000.
Ah come on Emma! Like he delivered ‘the goods’ to Roscommon? You should know by now that a politician promising anything is a sure sign of desperation. And if the jobs are delivered, Enda will have had little to do with it.
I put as much trust in Enda’s word on this, as I did on his election Roscommon Hospital speech.
I cant see 10,000 jobs being created to man post boxes in the IFSC. Sure why wouldn’t foreign companies have an address here, where else will let them launder there money and escape taxes in their own country. Why do you think France and germany are after us to higher our corporation tax. It’s to stop companies from laundering money and cooking the books in Ireland.
Every multi-national company are here because of it. I hope people don’t really think it’s because of our highly skilled workforce and our financial regulation and our accountability. We are actually party to the rip off of many countries.
No job for you so.
Cruel but very true. iFSC is a post box avenue for tax evasion. No real manufacuring
Manufacturing? It’s a financial services centre. Maybe you should go down to the IFSC and have a look at some of the ‘post boxes’ and the thousands of employees walking in and out of them everyday
To quote Clay Davis from the Wire “I’ll take any motherf**ker’s money if he givin’ it away!”
Yea man I agree take the money, I’m not on a moral high ground. We need to be realistic Enda Kenny is a liar, just like fiana fail they come from the same flawed system
Sorry for the spammy nature of this post, delete if inappropriate
Have look here at Enda’s speech and the full report. The Taoiseach is happy to brush aside any concerns about the business of the IFSC and would like Ireland remain “off shore tart” for big banking.
People complain that there are no jobs, when a chance for 10k of jobs is to be created, you still moan! Jeez, no pleasing some people!
blah blah blah blah blah jobs jobs jobs ……just like muppet bruttons ploy 8 jobs,EDNA YOU ARE A DISGRACE
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