By Michael O’Farrell
Investigations Editor
PRESIDENT Michael D Higgins is still refusing to release fully transparent details of his use of an annual €317,000 unaudited allowance – such as the amount he spent on gifts and wardrobe items.
This week, belatedly, a report into the allowance expenditure which President Higgins had promised would be made available in November, was published.
The report was released on Friday, 72 days after Mr Higgins promised it would be made available. However, the 51-page document – containing just one page of new and sparse financial details – stops short of the transparency and accountability promised by the President during the Áras campaign.
‘We’ll make a full return on how everything that is spent is receipted,’ Mr Higgins told reporters on October 2 – 75 days ago.
‘There is in fact a statement that comes every week. There is a stocktaking that takes place in relation to the kitchen… in relation to every month,’ he said.
‘Every single euro has been properly spent, and every single euro will be accounted for.’
Far from the promised report into ‘how everything was receipted’ the document reads more like a lengthy promotional brochure for the President and his work than a detailed financial return.
The limited financial data is carefully presented and does not answer many of the questions we have now been asking for months.
Instead, Mr Higgins details how he spent just under €2m in allowances since 2012 in a short table with five simple, and combined, expenditure headings.
So expenditure on gifts – one matter we have been asking about from the very beginning of the election campaign – is lumped into a heading entitled ‘other’ together with transport.
This means it remains impossible to ascertain how much Mr Higgins spent on gifts alone, never mind what these gifts were, whether they were purchased in line with public procurement guidelines or who they went to.
This weekend, to no avail, we once again asked Mr Higgins to say how much he spent on gifts and whether he would be in favour of a public register of gifts he gives and receives.
We also repeated previous questions about whether the President’s allowance was used for any wardrobe items – something that also remains unclear.
Another expense heading used in the report covers hospitality and entertaining including ‘entertainers fees and related fees’.
This category of expenditure accounts for more than €600,000 since late 2011. However, there is no indication as to which entertainers received these fees and whether any of these services were tendered for as per public procurement guidelines.
Similarly a €186,725 category of expenditure entitled ‘representing Ireland abroad’ gives no explanation as to what this means.
Throughout the election campaign the MoS repeatedly asked Mr Higgins to disclose the arrangements put in place to pay the €49,000 salary of his executive assistant Kevin McCarthy.
Mr McCarthy became a close confidant after he offered to drive Mr Higgins for free during the gruelling 2011 election campaign.
The President appointed him to his staff on the day of his inauguration, creating the position of executive assistant especially for him, despite having already filled his staffing allocation.
Mr Higgins and his office refuse to specify what area of his general budget was sacrificed to allow for this extra wage, and whether the unaudited allowance could have been used to replace any such cut in the general budget.
This week’s report does not answer these questions. But it does show that part of the President’s allowance was used for transport and stationery. Each is already covered by the general budget.
The President’s spokesman said this weekend ‘all salaries are paid from voted expenditure’ and there would be no further information.
