A local councillor has criticised a proposed raise in the allowance afforded to Kilkenny’s First Citizen.
Eugene McGuinness voiced his concerns to KCLR News at last evening’s meeting of the county county about the jump from 10,000 to 12,000 euro per annum.
Cllr McGuinness, an uncle of current Mayor Andrew McGuinness, noted that while the person in that role does attend a number of different functions he could not support the rise; “I actually do believe that the Mayor does an awful lot of work, I mean you can see it yourself, I also remember my Father being Mayor of Kilkenny on seven different occasions and most of the time they weren’t paid anything, now there should be an allowance paid, yes they have to go to a lot of functions etc but I do not agree with increasing that allowance to €12,000 I simply think that it sends out the wrong message, I think that if there wasn’t such a cost-of-living issue maybe I might consider it, two thousand means an awful lot of things to an awful lot of people”.
