Over the course of the past seven years, he's spent E100,000 on taxis.
The President of the Waterford Institute of Technology believes that he's given the taxpayers good value for their money. In his mind, he's actually saved them money by not charging them the higher mileage rate versus the cost of a car and driver.
Is he driving to Donegal and back, twice a day, every day? That's a lot of miles, to burn through E100,000 seven years. Does he not take the summer holiday, so, but continue to drive around for the benefit of the school? How about booking passage on Iarnrod Eireann and knocking down costs further?
He's working on an expansion of the school, in the hope that it will receive university status before long. That would explain the need for E134,000 worth of fine art to dress up the old barn.
All of this is coming out now because Professor Byrne is up for a new ten-year term as president, and you'd imagine that some board members who didn't like his generosity with taxpayer funds went looking for a good reason to vote in someone else.
There's talk of upping the fees that third-level students have to meet, a budget issue that has students and parents alike up in arms. They aren't likely to agree with the professor, that fitting out his office and boardroom to the tune of E157,000 is good value.
To them, good value is an office big enough to hold everyone, a serviceable carpet and the desk that the president's been using all along. They're making do on what they have because everyone's suffering in the downturn.
They expect those who manage the services they fund to do the same.
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