Davis Publishes P60 In Bid For 'Openness'

Presidential hopeful Mary Davis has published her P60 to encourage candidate "openness" during the race for Aras.

The independent candidate has revealed that she earned more than €390k for her work on various State and non-State boards over the past decade.

Ms Davis has published her P60 and gave details of the payments she received after being criticised over the weekend that she had not made her earnings transparent.

"I have called for openness in the debate regarding who should be the next President of Ireland and I am perfectly happy to practice what I preach in relation to transparency," she said in a statement.

She added: "Today, I am putting into the public domain all of the information in relation to every body I have worked with or given advice to during my adult working life.

"I am also putting all of the details in relation to fees paid for any work done or advice given to these organisations."

Ms Davis also points out in the statement that between 1996 and the present she has had voluntary positions for 18 bodies or organisations, for which she received no fees.

Ms Davis has urged the other presidential candidates to release their P60s.

Martin McGuinness, another of the Presidential candidates, has already come under fire about his salary.

Fine Gael candidate Gay Mitchell has spoken out saying: "You say you live on the average industrial wage – you earned about €200k last year. Publish your P60 – it's not true, Martin."

Meanwhile, Independent Sean Gallagher has called on all of those involved in the race to deal with the real issues and move away from "mud-slinging".

He said it was a pity that controversies have so far featured heavily in the campaign.

Referring to arguments over David Norris' clemency letters and Mr McGuinness' IRA past, he said people are tired of that kind of politics and said the campaign should focus on the real issues and move on.

(LB/BMcC)