John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----for travel within their Dáil constituency. For councillors who have vast electoral areas, some provision to acknowledge those costs must be considered by this group.

On the previous day Senator Mark Daly raised the issue of the Revenue Commissioners. Other Senators have spoken about the public sector travel rates that apply to councillors. A recent adjudication by the Revenue Commissioners, which was circulated to Senators, stated that any rates of travel paid above the public service rate are liable to tax. The best way of delivering an appropriate system for local representatives is to try to ensure they get the range of services that are available to national politicians. However, we do not want to arrive at a situation where mileage expenses are taxed because they are deemed to be above the necessary rate for such mileage.

On the previous day Senator Ó Domhnaill spoke about the £90,000 for councillors in London. I admire his bottle but I suspect the figure would not be anywhere in that region.

Senator Dolan spoke about the critical position of councillors and said that the next group the cynics would come after would be Members of the Oireachtas. I think the cynics have been there and gone, but they might come back again.