Deal with this expenses distraction now

It's the story that simply won't go away. The anger over Ceann Comhairle John O'Donoghue's lavish expenses continues to mount, as does the pressure on the former Fianna Fail minister to explain the level of his spending of taxpayers' money while in office. Since he became Ceann Comhairle in 2007, Mr O'Donoghue has claimed more than €200,000 in expenses - over and above his €225,000 annual salary. Records show that this has been spent on travel, limousine hire, luxury hotel accommodation, dining out in top restaurants and other hospitality, even though Mr O'Donoghue has no ministerial role. His role is to preside impartially over the business and proceedings of Dail Eireann. As Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, the Kerry TD racked up a total of €550,000 on travel and expenses over five years. He eventually apologised for the high level of spending he incurred while minister, saying he regretted not paying more attention to the costs of the arrangments provided for him. His apology was accepted by all sides of the House. However, the latest revelations about his more recent spending splurge has reopened the whole debate around the apparent pattern of extravagance enjoyed by the Ceann Comhairle at a time of unprecedented belt-tightening in all areas of public life. Opposition politicians and members of the public are correctly calling for an immediate explanation as to how Mr O'Donoghue could have notched up such extravagant foreign travel spending, which is entirely unacceptable to taxpayers. It is especially difficult to stomach when so many people are struggling to survive on social welfare payments, unemployment benefit or whose salaries have been significantly reduced through income or pension levies and wage cuts. This type of behaviour sends out completely the wrong signal to a population looking to its senior politicians to set an example at this time of crisis. Expenses are an extremely sensitive subject right now considering the painful transition this country is going through and any evidence of lavish free spending of taxpayers' money cannot be tolerated by the Government. Earlier in the year, the British establishment was convulsed by an expenses scandal uncovered by the Daily Telegraph which saw resignations of a dozen government ministers and came within a whisker of toppling the prime minister himself. Unlike the British, however, the Irish don't do resignations. Nonetheless, this 'running sore' needs now to be dealt with rapidly as this country clearly has an expenses regime that is far too liberally policed and which requires far greater accountability. An insistence on vouched or receipted expenses would be a good start. Because of the independence of the Ceann Comhairle's office, there seems to be a certain reluctance on the part of all sides of the House to deal firmly with this matter. But deal with it they must following Mr O'Donoghue's presentation of his "detailed proposals" to the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission at its meeting today (Wednesday). While this is an important matter which needs to be brought to a speedy but satisfactory conclusion, it has been a distraction from the very important business of government which lies ahead. With the Lisbon Treaty successfully negotiated, other major obstacles such as Nama and the December budget are looming large, all of which will require a concentration of minds. This matter cannot drag on beyond this week's meeting of the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission when the public will want to see it resolved once and for all, whether that involves the resignation of the Ceann Comhairle or not.