The Garda Representative Association (GRA) has confirmed that its general secretary Pat Ennis has repaid the cost of a €1,500 holiday voucher he got as a “gift” in 2012.
Last month The Sunday Times revealed that the GRA had spent extensive funds on holiday vouchers, travel expenses, conferences and hospitality, including the voucher for Ennis in recognition of his role in negotiating a pay deal.
Ennis told a meeting of the GRA central executive committee last week that he had decided to make a voluntary payment to the organisation. The meeting, which was attended by GRA trustees, was told that another unidentified person who received a €1,500 holiday voucher had also opted to refund the money. Ennis previously told The Sunday Times that he had been “humbled” to have received the voucher, which he had neither “sought nor solicited”.
The GRA is continuing to investigate who authorised the purchase of the vouchers, which ranged in value from €1,500 to €5,000, given to its own officials and to third parties, including an auditor and pension adviser.
Last week’s meeting was told that an accountant had established the GRA bought vouchers worth €12,500 in 2016 alone from Killester Travel, a Dublin company which specialises in golf and sporting holidays.
The association is still examining its accounts in case it can find other transactions not approved by the executive.
Some members of the GRA’s committee are continuing to demand a full review of all expenses paid to officials. “We need an external body to review our finances,” said one source.
Catherine Murphy, the Social Democrats TD, yesterday urged rank and file gardai to ask “hard questions” of their representative organisation and demand full accountability.
“It is hard to know what to say in a situation like this. You never get accountability if there is no transparency. I suspect the members of the GRA need to start asking some very hard questions about what is happening to their money and subscriptions.”
The GRA gets almost €2.5m a year in subscriptions from members, in addition to annual state funding of about €125,000. The organisation has 10,500 members.
The GRA yesterday confirmed that Ennis had repaid the value of the holiday voucher he received. A spokesman said: “Pat Ennis was presented with a holiday voucher worth €1,500 in 2012 in recognition of significant and unsalaried work completed in his role as chairman of the association’s garda roster team. Mr Ennis has since voluntarily repaid that amount in full.”
