The KCLR Daily with Brian Redmond

William Kennedy – from Kilkenny has built Public Purse, a website that aims to index all line-item expenses for each government entity, including Carlow and Kilkenny. He is a software development contractor (he owns his own business) who has traditionally worked on large-scale applications, but he recently became interested in how the government spends our money. Public Purse uses a combination of software and new AI innovations that help citizens, and hopefully elected representatives, learn more about the inner workings of their locality. The main aim is to answer the question: why was the money spent?
Here are some interesting facts that he has learned from the data in Carlow and Kilkenny alone.

- Your two county councils and the ETB are a €300 million-a-year industry.
- Kilkenny put €49.9 million of invoices over €20,000 on the record in a single quarter.
- Carlow has one housing order for €11.15 million.
- The ETB’s big published cheques are school building: €1.28 million and €761,000 for Scoil Aireagail, and €511,000 for a site.

What is The KCLR Daily with Brian Redmond?

Join Brian Redmond every weekday for The KCLR Daily, covering key news and current affairs stories to food, fashion, business, lifestyle and everything in between.

The KCLR Daily tackles the topics of the day, reflecting life in Kilkenny and Carlow.

Produced by Tom Hurley.

Contact the show, weekdays by text or WhatsApp to 083 3069696, phone 1800 90 9696 or email thekclrdaily@kclr96fm.com.