PAYMENTS:THE GOVERNMENT paid senior SDLP politicians expenses and mileage during the 1970s, the State papers show.
Confidential files uncover the unusual arrangement allowing senior party figures to claim payments from Dublin after the collapse of the North’s powersharing executive in 1974.
The documents, just released into the National Archives under a 30-year secrecy rule, also show government officials scrutinised and investigated every claim made by the then dominant Northern nationalist leaders.
In one letter between the taoiseach’s office and the Department of Foreign Affairs, a civil servant noted Austin Currie gave a list of SDLP figures “who were alleged to have attended certain meetings with Government members”.
Another official said details of the claims “do not tally” with records of meetings and advised further investigation to ensure “the SDLP aren’t claiming for something they aren’t entitled to”.
Former party leader John Hume was top of the expenses list, claiming more than £350 on one occasion for several meetings, followed by Mr Currie and Seamus Mallon.
The papers also show a senior civil servant discussed with Mr Hume the question of reintroducing internment to tackle IRA violence. In a briefing note on a meeting with Mr Hume, David Neligan, assistant secretary at the Department of Foreign Affairs, said: “Hume expressed particular revulsion for the IRA whose recent atrocities were directly responsible for the extreme attitudes now being revealed by public opinion in Britain and amongst unionists.
“His [Mr Hume’s] thoughts were evidently running towards the idea of internment as a solution to the IRA violence.
“The authorities could publish names of suspected members of illegal organisations and require them to announce publicly that they had severed all connections with those bodies or, alternatively, be interned.
“In this and other respects, Mr Hume’s ideas to cope with the immediate grave situation did not seem to have been fully thought through.”
The files on party expenses show other notable SDLP figures, including Hugh Logue; Frank Feely; Paddy O’Donoghue; Joe Hendron; Michael Canavan; Tom Daly; Gerry Fitt; Dan McAreavy; and Bríd Rodgers all made expenses claims.
One memo raised concerns that the Department of Finance-sanctioned “civil service mileage rates” and “Class A” subsistence payouts for meals and overnight stays were being drawn from a fund capped at £9,000.
“I understand there is a possibility that this will be exceeded,” wrote a government aide.
SDLP figures claimed for meetings with the taoiseach; minister for foreign affairs; minister for agriculture; minister for transport; and minister for tourism.
Officials were tasked with checking with government ministers if meetings actually occurred after confidential letters from the taoiseach’s office chased up the expenses from the Department of Finance. – (PA)