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payback time
TDs have given back €140,000 in allowances - but who gave €3.63?
And who returned a whopping €6.89?
A TOTAL OF 56 TDs have combined to return a total of €140,00 to the exchequer.
The repayment comes from unused allowances for 2014, available to all TDs.
While Taoiseach Enda Kenny returned €9,215 of his €16,000 allowance, he was not the most frugal member of the government.
The 2014 statement shows that former education minister Ruairí Quinn gave back €15,510 of his €22,280 allowance for the year.
Not everyone, however, returned as much. Diaspora Minister Jimmy Deenihan returned just €3.63 to the taxpayer, while Transport Minister Paschal Donohoe gave €6.89. Kildare TD Bernard Durkan returned €16.20.
All TDs are entitled to claim a Public Representative Allowance (PRA) of €1,695 a month. This is designed to help run a constituency office and cover bills like a mobile phone.
Non ministers can also claim between €750 and €2,838 a month for travel and accommodation, depending on how far away from the Dáil you live.
That means that Fine Gael’s Noel Harrington, who lives in Castletownbere in Cork, was able to claim €34,000 last year. His total claim of €54,415 put him top of the overall claimants list.
Only one TD, Labour’s Eamonn Maloney declined to take expenses, as he has done every year since his election in 2011.
In total, TDs claimed €6.2 million in allowances in 2014.
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