Overview
- A spokesperson said a narrow interpretation of a parliamentary question led to an incomplete answer on former commissioner Drew Harris’s full remuneration.
- The missing disclosures include an OPW lease of Harris’s residence at €21,000 per year from 2018 to 2025 and an entitlement to an 18.4% pension contribution that he waived.
- Labour’s Alan Kelly accused the minister of misleading the Dáil and called for him to come before the house to explain.
- The Public Accounts Committee heard the rent was not increased during the lease, while the OPW said €400,000 in refurbishments occurred before the lease and not for that purpose.
- The department cited 2017 Policing Authority advice that accommodation could be appropriate for an external commissioner on 24/7 call, Niall Collins said benefit-in-kind was likely paid and the rent should have risen, and the current commissioner has no rent arrangement.