O'Conor denies using public money for parties and dinners

FORMER ROYAL Irish Academy of Music director John O’Conor has said he never used public money to eat out in expensive restaurants or to cater at home.

The salary and expenses paid to Mr O’Conor, who was director from 1994 to last year, were criticised in a Comptroller and Auditor General’s report.

It found that his €225,000 remuneration package for a part-time post was higher than the public sector norm and his €23,000 expenses budget in 2008 did not meet the criteria for a body which is in substantial receipt of public funding. A total of 53 per cent of the academy’s €8 million budget comes from the State.

It subsequently emerged in documents released under the Freedom of Information Act that Mr O’Conor spent €8,510 on home entertainment and €2,580 on 10 dinners in Patrick Guilbaud’s restaurant in 2008 alone.

In his first public comments on the matter, Mr O’Conor told RTÉ Radio 1’s Marian Finucane Show there was a “presumption on people’s parts” that his expense account was paid for by taxpayers which he said was “incredibly hurtful”. He said the State paid for 70 per cent of teachers’ salaries at the academy and the rest, including his expenses, came from private funding.

“The main thing that is getting into people’s minds is that I used their money to have a nice time. It was not taxpayers’ money.”

He said he raised €3.5 million himself for the academy and it was his job to use the expense account to entertain potential donors.

He defended a lunch for 24 people at his house in Rathgar, Dublin, which cost more than €3,000 for food and drink. He used home-entertaining to fundraise and to thank those who had donated to the academy including one anonymous donor who gave €220,000 to the academy.

“If I spent €3,000 on that lunch I don’t apologise. I invited 24 people. I invited them [the donors], I invited some of their friends. I invited people that they would want to meet and so on,” he said. “I had a large drinks party in my house before Christmas and I invited 130 people. I don’t apologise. I needed to get to talk to as many people as possible.”

The comptroller’s report found that he provided no invoices or receipts attached to his credit card memorandum. The pianist said he was only asked by the governors of the academy to state what the meal was for and who was there.

He said when asked to submit invoices, he complied.