Three local councillors are to receive £260 each to pay for travel to a Dublin conference – ten times the cost of getting the bus.
Derry City and Strabane District Council has come under fire after it approved spending £780 for three of its members to travel to the capital.
The decision was made at a meeting of Derry City and Strabane District Council’s Governance and Strategic Planning Committee.
At the meeting, councillors agreed to send three of their colleagues to and from South Dublin County Council for an event which takes place over two days in June.
The ‘capacity building’ event has been organised by the Northern Ireland Local Government Partnership on Traveller Issues, which three members of the local council currently sit on.
Elected members were told that the Partnership ‘will meet all the accommodation (two nights) and subsistence costs of the initiative’, and requested that the participating councils meet the costs of travel to and from South Dublin County Council.
It was then agreed at the meeting that council allocate £260 for each of its members travelling to South Dublin County Council, ‘subject to the mode of transport’.
The cost of each councillor travelling to the event is ten times that of a return bus ticket from Derry to Dublin, which is currently £26.
The news comes after the Derry News revealed last week that councillors can claim 65p per mile for mileage, and 20p per mile even if they choose to travel by bicycle.
Harry Davis, campaign manager at the Taxpayers' Alliance, hit out at the local council’s decision to allocate £780 in travel costs alone for the event.
"Local taxpayers will be appalled at this decision to allow councillors such enormous travel expenses,” he said.
“Of course there are times when long distance travelling will be required for meetings or conferences, but at a time when budgets are tight and necessary savings have to be found, councillors should be looking to reduce this kind of spending, instead of increasing it."
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