SENATOR IVOR CALLELY was the only member of the Seanad not to receive parliamentary travel and accommodation expenses for the month of February.
The latest expenses details published by the Oireachtas – detailing expenses paid to members of both houses for the month of February, when the Seanad did not sit at all – show Callely to be the only one of the upper house’s 58 members not to be given financial compensation for his travel.
This is despite official attendance records showing that Callely showed up for work in Leinster House for 16 of February’s 20 working days.
Callely has not received any attendance expenses since last May – when it was first reported that he had been claiming travel allowances based on an address at Kilcrohane in Co Cork, despite maintaining his constituency office in Clontarf from where he had been elected a TD.
Though previous monthly expenses reports said Callely’s payments had been withheld pending an outcome to the ongoing dispute over his Cork expenses claims, the reports for February and January did not include this disclaimer.
Neither Callely’s own office nor the Members’ Service Unit at Leinster House were able to confirm to TheJournal.ie whether Callely had submitted any expenses claims for his travel to and from Leinster House for February.
The expenses documents show that the 57 other then-members of Seanad Éireann received a total of €158,677 in Parliamentary Standard Allowances for the month of February.
Those payments – which cover travel and accommodation allowances for all non-ministerial members of the Oireachtas, as well as a ‘public representation allowance’ paid to all TDs and Senators – limit the former portion based on the distance each member has to travel to Dublin.
Of the €158,677 in expenses paid to members of the Seanad for February, just under two thirds – €105,245 – was paid out in respect of unvouched expenses claims.
Senators, unlike TDs, retain office until the next Seanad is elected – and so Callely, and the other 57 Senators who held office before the Dáil elections on 25 February, do still retain their Senatorial responsibilities.
Because the Dáil was dissolved on 1 February, however, the Seanad did not meet for the entire month – and with TDs no longer keeping office after that date, there were also no committee meetings held for the calendar month.
As a result, senators – who are officially thought of as being part-time members of the Oireachtas – had no parliamentary business appointments for the entire month of February.
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