Bertie won’t be billing you for ‘secretarial expenses’ anymore, as former Taoisigh are no longer entitled to claim for a range of costly expenses.
Enda is showing that he isn’t taking none (i.e. crap) from nobody as a range of perks for former Taoisigh (plural for Taoiseach) comes to an end with the scrapping of the secretarial expenses scheme.
The expenses that former Taoisigh were allowed to claim for included secretarial assistants, computer equipment, telephone costs and airport VIP facilities paid for by the State.
According to the Irish Times, the provision of secretarial services for Mr Ahern since 2008 is more than all other former Taoisigh combined.
He has also run up mobile phone bills of almost €11,000, which is the equivalent of calling up your mate and talking for six days straight.
So what has Bertie billed up during his years out of office? Well, his ‘secretarial costs’ in 2008 amounted to a cool €75,000, a whopping €114,000 in 2009 (when “times were tough”), a further €107,000 in 2010 and €71,000 last year. A total of €367,000, while the rest of us pinch every last penny.
Other ex-Taoisigh didn’t do too badly when claiming expenses. Last year Brian Cowen’s expenses cost €32,000 while former Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave, is not recorded as having claimed under the scheme.
