Labour Deputy Tommy Broughan has described the nearly €800 a day fee paid to Dr. Colm McCarthy, Chair of An Bord Snip Nua as outrageous, risible and laughable. At the request of constituents, Deputy Broughan asked Finance Minister Brian Lenihan to give a breakdown of the published €38,400 cost of An Bord Snip Nua.

Deputy Broughan said, “'Brian Lenihan has now informed me that Dr. Colm McCarthy himself was paid a so-called 'flat rate fee' of €35,000 for chairing the group which held 52 meetings on 45 separate days. This means that Dr. McCarthy was paid an astonishing €777.78 for each of those days. In practice, the head of An Bord Snip Nua may have been paid well over €1,000 per day for a normal working day.

“In the context of the brief given to An Bord Snip Nua by the Fianna Fail/Green government to savagely cut public spending, this payment must count as one of the most cynical and laughable in the history of the state.

Deputy Broughan has also been told that 'no other member of the group received any remuneration' and mercifully that 'none of the members, including Mr. McCarthy, received any expenses'.

“Commentators have rightly drawn attention to the perceived similar career backgrounds of the membership of An Bord Snip Nua (who also include Mr Pat McLoughlin, Mr. Maurice O'Connell, Mr. William Slattery, Ms. Mary Walsh and Mr. Donal McNally). But it is at least refreshing to note that they gave their services 'pro bono' unlike the Chair and spokesperson for the group, Dr. Colm McCarthy.

Deputy Broughan has been a trenchant critic of An Bord Snip Nua or 'The Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure Programmes'.

“While I have always sharply attacked any waste of public money on the Public Accounts Committee, I regard the vast bulk of the McCarthy report as a disgraceful waste of taxpayers' money and a pointless cover-up exercise by discredited Fianna Fail and Green ministers. The most striking features of the report are its total lack of any cost benefit analysis of its proposals and of any true forensic investigation of the aims of public policy and consequent public expenditure.

“Many of the savage cuts proposed in health, education and social welfare benefits would devastate the lives of Ireland's most vulnerable citizens. Of course Dr. McCarthy's daily fee represents nearly four weeks income for people living on the basic welfare allowance!

“Obviously the published €38,000 cost of the Bord Snip Nua report is also a gross underestimate since Minister Lenihan confirms that the Secretariat to the group was provided by the Department of Finance (which clearly provided most if not all of the figures and estimates for government programmes) and the Department also paid for the printing and distribution of the report.

“The Minister finally notes that Dr. McCarthy and his group spent €2,346.61 on tea/coffee/sandwiches and a further €1,038.54 on couriers. I intend to raise the costs and output of An Bord Snip Nua at the Committee of Public Accounts in a few weeks time.”