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THE 31st DÁIL has had economic issues to the fore since its members were elected at the end of February last year. One financial stat that the political parties and independents might not be trumpeting this morning is the €6 million total in expenses that 165 out of the 166 sitting TDs claimed from the day of their election until the last day of December 2011.
The one TD who didn’t claim a cent of expenses (or ‘a red cent’ as was the buzzword of #GE11) last year was Labour TD for Dublin South West Eamonn Maloney. In an interview with TheJournal.ie yesterday, Maloney said that he didn’t want to make a crusade of his expenses refusal but that it was a “matter of principle” for him to live within the bounds of his €90,000 TD salary. He said:
As TDs, we earn a huge amount of money already – over €90,000 a year. I was on the dole before I came in to Leinster House because I’d lost my job two years before the election and I’d worked in a factory before that. So I think the average worker looking on, especially given the economic state of the country, can be left dismayed by the amounts involved.
If you are interested in exactly how much TDs in your constituency earned in 2011, we have assembled the expenses for each month from February (part) to December to come up with a total for the year.
CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL SPREADSHEET
What you should know when reading the figures:
The total expenses for each TD is in the furthest right-hand column of the spreadsheet.
However, before you judge the individual TDs’ claims, there are a few important factors to bear in mind:
(Image: Oireachtas.ie)
More details on the allowances and expense ceilings for TDs can be found here.
If you are interested in analysis of the highest and lowest claimants, TheJournal.ie compiled the following articles:
When it comes to the average claimed by TDs from a political party (and the Ceann Comhairle), this is the breakdown:
WUAG* – Average per TD: €49,911 (1 TD – Seamus Healy) *Workers and Unemployed Action Group
Fianna Fáil* – Average per TD: €47,115 (*of the 19 current TDs)
Sinn Féin - Average per TD: €44,153
Independents – Average per TD: €40,713
Fine Gael – Average per TD: €36,412
People Before Profit Alliance – Average per TD: €31,866
Labour* – Average per TD: €29,513 (*of original 37)
Socialist Party – Average per TD: €23,653
NOTES: The Fine Gael and Labour totals include TDs who were elected under the party name but have since lost the party whip, eg, Naughten, Penrose and Broughan. Neither Patrick Nulty nor Brian Lenihan are included in the averages as they only served a small part of the year.
The averages may also reflect several factors eg, where the majority of a party’s TDs’ constituencies are located (Fianna Fáil has no Dublin TD so its members’ travel expenses may be higher) or the fact that Cabinet members are either from Labour or Fine Gael (and as such, the travel expenses of those ministers/junior ministers don’t fall into the Oireachtas expenses list).
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