Ms Geraldine Tallon:

The practice has varied across local authorities. Some local authorities pay very few allowances beyond the nationally applicable allowances that are mentioned on the other list we provided to the committee. Some local authorities bought out allowances in large measure. I have seen a table that indicates the percentage of payroll that is represented by allowances in each local authority area. The figure is as low as 1.5% in Westmeath but as high as 4.8% in Wexford. The numbers of local allowances that are still in existence vary from council to council. In some cases, they have been largely bought out or eliminated over the years.