|
 |
You are > Home > George ‘not creaming it’ after landing Labour post
|
01 March 2012
George ‘not creaming it’ after landing Labour post
BETWEEN SINGING on stage, working as a Borough and County Councillor, running a business and being a family man, you’d imagine Wexford Borough councillor George Lawlor wouldn’t have time to look sideways, but The Echo has learned that he has also been working full time for Labour’s Brendan Howlin, doing his constituency work.
Arguably Wexford’s busiest Councillor, Min. Howlin’s protégé, Cllr. Lawlor has taken up residence at the minister’s Coolcotts office six days a week, working as a ‘temporary vouched employee’ for the Minister on a wage of under €25,000 a year after taxes.
When contacted by The Echo, Cllr. Lawlor replied: “Yes, I am working for Brendan Howlin handling his constituency work.”
He said he has stepped aside from working at his business in Whitemill Industrial Estate, Impression Print, and is no longer taking a wage there.
Cllr. Lawlor’s main job now is handling issues raised by constituents of the Labour minister who is too busy to take on the workload, as he is sorting out the nation’s finances.
Cllr. Lawlor said he spends most of his week at the offices of Brendan Howlin, holding clinics there and doing constituency work.
Min. Howlin realised shortly after being made minister for Public Expenditure & Reform that he would not be able to do the amount of constituency work he wanted to, so he availed of the opportunity of employing his party colleague Cllr. Lawlor.
“The amount of constituency work was being neglected and senior ministers are entitled to a ‘temporary vouched employee’.
The minister approached me when the volume of his work became apparent around May. The Minister’s idea was that I would do whatever work was deemed necessary. It’s usually an awful lot more than 39 hours a week. I am here in Brendan Howlin’s office since,” Cllr. Lawlor said.
As The Echo phoned Cllr. Lawlor he was dealing with a constituent from Enniscorthy and he said he is flat out working on the job.
Min. Howlin also has a secretary employed at his Coolcotts office which received a makeover when he was promoted within government ranks following Labour’s triumph in the last elections.
Cllr. Lawlor works Monday to Friday and usually steps-in to cover Min. Howlin’s clinics on Saturdays.
“The volume of calls has increased so much in recent times. I am getting calls from all over the county dealing with absolutely everything from people looking to seek work on the building site at Wexford General Hospital, to housing, to people’s financial issues and CE scheme issues. We are asked the impossible as well as the possible and we try to do our best. I enjoy it,” he said.
He said a councillor is a good fit for the job as they have people’s confidence and are recognisable to members of the public. One downside of his inordinate workload is that Cllr. Lawlor has had to cut back on his singing.
“I sing very little now. There is a one-and-a-half minute slot in Wexford Light Opera Society’s latest production which I have notionally agreed to do in April. I don’t do weddings or funerals anymore and I rarely do a concert.”
Cllr. Lawlor only gets to call in to his business for around half an hour a day to either collect a cheque, do a price on a job or check in on things.
“I take my work home at night and deal with stuff at night.” He admitted that the role won’t hurt his political ambitions going forward, but said his ascendance to a higher role within the party “is not on the horizon at the moment’.
He pointed out that his wage from the Borough Council only amounts to a few euro a day for attending meetings as County Councillors are exempt from collecting a Borough Council wage of around €9,000 annually, while he was taxed €8,000 on his €28,000 lump sum from his work as a county councillor, expenses included, last year.
“I am not trying to paint myself as a white knight. You earn every penny you get. I know the public perception is that I am creaming it but the reality is far from that. I don’t claim the annual €600 phone allowance from the council because I use my work phone and don’t think that’s fair. I don’t claim a lot of the mileage money I’m owed either.”
He pointed out that Fianna Fáil’s John Browne had Bernard Crosbie employed as a ‘temporary vouched employee’ for years, adding that he is available to constituents from Monday to Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and at most Saturday clinics at the Siptu office in Coolcotts where Min. Howlin’s office is located.
He said the job security of the ‘temporary vouched employee’ is contingent upon Min. Howlin getting elected next time around, but with rumours rife that Cllr. Lawlor himself may be Dáil bound someday after his great success in the last county council election, it may not be long before he has his own ‘temporary vouched employee’ in the Labour office in Cooclotts.
Main News Page |
Previous Page
|
|
|
|
