Irish TDs claimed more than €567,000 in expenses for December, the very first month of the new Dáil term, when the House sat on just one occasion.

Newstalk’s Political Correspondent Seán Defoe joined Lunchtime Live to explain what TDs are offered in expenses.

“So, these allowances that they get, they’re done monthly," he said.

"There’s a lot of different allowances they can get; some for phones and some for office spaces, etcetera.

“But the ones that we’re talking about in figures are their Parliamentary standard allowances.

“There’s two parts to that, one is an expense to cover the cost of their work as a TD, their work as a public rep - that could be printing out leaflets, it could be for their website, different things like that.”

Seán said this aspect is an annually limited voucher expense for which Deputy’s need to submit receipts in order to avail of it on a monthly basis.

Taoiseach Simon Harris speaking on the phone from his office at Government Buildings in Dublin, 15-5-24. Image: X/@SimonHarrisTD

The other part of the figures is made up from travel and accommodation costs, which are weighted depending on how far a TD lives away from Leinster House.

“So, when you’re talking about TDs from Dublin, they can get up to €9,000 a year for travel and accommodation – obviously they’re not going to be doing a huge amount of it,” he said.

“On the far end, on band 12 of the 12 bands – which currently includes only one TD, Michael Collins in rural West Cork – that goes up to €34,000 a year."

This also covers travel within a TDs constituency, so they can be present in the Dáil and still meet people on the ground.

Six-figure salary

None of this is paid out of the €113,000 salary that TDs receive annually.

“That’s why they were able to get this money while there was only one sitting day in the month, because it’s paid monthly,” Seán said.

“It’s not vowed, you don’t have to submit your receipts to say, ‘Well, yes, I actually did have five trips from Kerry to Dublin that particular week’.”

A person holds and counts budget money. Image: imageBROKER.com GmbH & Co. KG / Alamy

However, Seán said TDs can only avail of this expense if they log 120 days present in the Dáil.

Previously, junior Ministers did not receive any subsidies for their travel, but according to Seán, this has changed since the Regional Independents Group negotiated this into the programme for Government.

There is also a phone allowance of €750 available for TDs every eighteen months, and up to €25,000 in a voucher expense for security measures.

Main image: The 33rd sitting of the Dáil for the announcement of the members of the new Cabinet.
PIC: MAXWELLS. 27/06/2020