Leadership

Central Bank revealed as agency paying for spouses’ travel

04.02.2010
The Central Bank confirmed yesterday that it was the agency that paid for the spouses of 52 of its staff to travel abroad.

However, it insisted that these trips took place over a two-year period in connection with a set of international meetings, and did not involve just a single trip.

Embarrassment for C&AG
The revelation about the 52 trips made by a State agency was contained in a special report on spending at FAS published by the state spending watchdog, the Comptroller & Auditor General (C&AG), last week.

The revelation of the ‘super-junket’ was contained in an appendix to the C&AG’s FAS report in which the watchdog surveyed 20 State organisations to obtain information about foreign travel.

It said that one State agency had told it that “staff members’ spouses had travelled by invitation to an official spouse’s programme”. The C&AG said in a footnote that this involved a single trip for 52 spouses.

The Central Bank said in a statement that the C&AG had clearly misinterpreted a response it had given in a questionnaire it had received from the state spending watchdog.

Central Bank to face questioning
However, notwithstanding the C&AG’s error, the Chairman of the Dail Public Accounts Committee Bernard Allen said yesterday that the committee would question the Central Bank on the number of trips involving spouses, saying that these appeared to be high even if they were spread over a two-year period.

While the Central Bank has admitted it was the agency responsible for the 52 trips, it did not disclose who went on the trips, or how much they cost.

Foreign travel ‘a privilege’
Fine Gael’s finance spokesman Richard Bruton TD also criticised the level of foreign travel by spouses of central bank staff paid for by the taxpayer.

“The opportunity to travel abroad is a privilege that should be used only where it serves the public interest. It is unacceptable for the Central Bank and perhaps other agencies to have used the facility to travel abroad for anything other than in the pursuit of the public interest,” he said.

“At a time when the public is still reeling from the impact of the failure of our banking system, this matter will only add to the anger and frustration of the general public, particularly those whose livelihoods have been put in jeopardy by the regulatory failure which occurred.

“It would be unfortunate if those responsible for safeguarding the system appear not to have had clear views on how public money should be used,” Bruton added.