LAST NIGHT, RENUA leader Lucinda Creighton made a big claim.

The Dublin Bay South TD said that when she had asked the Houses of the Oireachtas printing service to print up her constituency newsletter, she was refused – because another TD was printing 85,000 Christmas cards.

Creighton doubled down on the huge figure in a further tweet:

Such a massive number just three days before Christmas raised eyebrows, and rumours began to fly about who the last-minute card sender was.

Sources definitively named one TD to TheJournal.ie, but when contacted, the TD in question firmly denied they were involved in any way.

After the initial surprise, then came disbelief.

After all, 85,000 is a hefty number of Christmas cards.

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Sources have now confirmed to TheJournal.ie that no such request for Christmas cards was made of the Oireachtas printing service.

Indeed, as Gavan Reilly of Today FM points out, an order for 85,000 Christmas cards would match the orders for all members of the Oireachtas between 2012 and 2014.

The largest Christmas card order in recent years came from Labour’s Joe Costello, who had 30,000 done at a cost of €984.

A spokesperson for Renua says that the party will not be making a further comment on the matter or how Creighton was informed of the 85,000 figure.

So as of now, there’s no evidence to support the claim of 85,000 Christmas cards being printed in the Oireachtas.

The story comes as The Irish Times reports that Independent Senator Averil Power used the Oireachtas printing service to print 73,000 calendars for 2016.

In 2012, Oireachtas members spent €276,000 on printing, TheStory.ie reported in 2013. No single order came close to 85,000 units and Emmett Stagg’s 6,000 Christmas cards were the most ordered.

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