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Cllr Francis Timmons – Independent Voice

Counsellor phones

MEETING OF ORGANISATION PROCEDURE AND FINANCE COMMITTEE

Thursday, November 19, 2015

QUESTION NO.6

QUESTION: Councillor F. Timmons

To ask for a report on the uptake of SDCC phones by counsellors and how much this is estimated to cost ?

REPLY:

In accordance with Circular letter LG 12/14 issued on the 20th May 2014, which details the review of arrangements for allowances for expenses incurred by elected members of local authorities. A mobile telephone allowance under Part III of the Regulations shall be payable to a member in relation to the carrying-out of his or her duties as a member subject to the following –

  1. Local authorities shall, in the first instance, seek the most economical options either by negotiating a contract for the provision of mobile voice and data services (“bundle”) for its elected members or including elected members in the local authority’s own contracted bundle for such services. Only in the event a cheaper option not being available should an allowance in accordance with paragraph 2 below be considered. Local authorities shall be required to document and retain details of all costings to demonstrate that payment of an allowance is the cheaper option.
  2. An annual allowance of 50% of total vouched mobile phone costs associated with the public duties of a member of a local authority may be paid, subject to a maximum allowance of €600 per annum and subject to paragraph 1 above.

As outlined at the Organisation and Procedures Committee Meeting in September 2015, South Dublin County Council currently has a corporate mobile voice and data contract with Three Mobile. The price plans for Elected Members are detailed below:

Option 1:

€18.00 ex VAT– unlimited national calls to landlines, mobiles across all networks. Unlimited national texts plus 2GB national data

Option 2:

€23.50 ex VAT – unlimited national calls and texts with 7.5GB national data allowance

The Council’s Telephony Section have emailed each elected member advising them of their options and requested them to indicate their preference. With effect from the 1st January 2016 the maximum amount payable will be the equivalent of €23.50 ex Vat.

At present the maximum amount payable for a mobile phone allowance to an elected member is €50.00 per month, based on a comparsion of this figure with the higher of the corporate rate there is a potential saving of over €10,000 per anum. In addtion it will significantly reduce the administration process for the payment of mobile phone allowances.

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