Full transparency in everyone’s interests
These include an allowance for constituency travel, an allowance for travel to Leinster House, an allowance for overnights, a constituency telephone allowance, a constituency office grant, a constituency office maintenance allowance, a special secretarial allowance, a miscellaneous expense allowance and more.
A myriad of rules governs these different allowances, making it far from easy to compare what each TD claims.
In addition, most of the allowances and expenses are completely unvouched, meaning TDs do not have to produce receipts. Finally, media organisations have generally had to resort to the Freedom of Information Act to obtain the actual amounts that TDs claim each year.
So it’s not hard to see then why reform of the system is necessary. Although TDs can make a good case for defending the size of their expenses, few could legitimately argue that the existing system provides either transparency or accountability.
And so, from March 1, a new system will take effect, following negotiations between the Department of Finance and the Oireachtas Commission, the body that runs the Dáil and Seanad.
The new system will replace the vast majority of existing allowances with just two distinct payments – and the amounts TDs receive will be published each month.
When combined, the two payments will mean that TDs will receive between €27,000 and €63,550 in personal allowances and expenses each year, depending on their constituency and willingness to produce receipts.
This will be on top of their basic pay, which ranges from €92,672 to €98,424 depending on the length of time a TD has served in the Dáil.
The first payment, to be known as the Public Representation Allowance, will cover expenses related to constituency offices, mobile phones, home phones, newspaper adverts, leaflets, conference costs, room hire, replacement of equipment, and similar.
Under this allowance, TDs will receive €15,000 a year without having to produce receipts.
Alternatively, they can claim up to €25,700 if they agree to produce receipts. But those who opt for the higher amount will face the possibility of audits.
The second payment, to be known as the Travel and Accommodation Allowance, will cover the cost of travel within the constituency and to and from Leinster House. It will also cover the cost of overnights where applicable.
This allowance will be set at €12,000 a year for Dublin-based TDs, increasing to €37,850 for deputies living 360km or more from the Dáil.
To qualify for full payment, TDs will have to demonstrate they attended the Dáil on at least 120 out of each 150 days – or 80% of the time.
If they fail to meet these requirements, they will have to forfeit 1% of the allowance for every day below 120 that they miss.
In other words, if a Dublin-based TD attended only on 119 days, he or she would be docked 1% of €12,000, or €120. If he or she attended only on 118 days, 2% – or €240 – would be forfeited.
In addition to the Public Representation Allowance and the Travel and Accommodation Allowance, it appears that just one other payment will be made to TDs under the new system.
That’s the existing special secretarial allowance, which is designed to cover the cost of secretarial assistance in TDs’ offices rather than any personal expenses.
All of the above sounds progressive. And it’s only fair to point out that – whatever the arguments about the size of their pay – TDs do incur sizeable costs for which they deserve to be reimbursed. Anyone working in the private sector would similarly expect that legitimate expenses are met by their employer.
But one can’t help wondering if the new reforms go far enough. For a start, under the Public Representation Allowance, TDs could claim €15,000 a year – or €1,250 a month – without producing any receipts.
And, depending on their location, they could claim another €1,000 to €3,154 a month under the Travel and Accommodation Allowance without producing receipts. Admittedly, they’ll have to clock in at the Dáil, but that’s hardly the same thing.
When the two payments are taken together, it means TDs will be able to claim between €2,250 and €4,404 in allowances and expenses each month without having to produce receipts.
That’s a lot of public money to go unvouched. And while they might abhor the amount of paperwork that would be involved in a fully vouched system, this would actually serve the TDs better. Such a fully transparent system could help prove their long-running argument about the bills they incur as politicians. More importantly, it could also help rebuild trust in politics.
TDs will, of course, protest at any insinuation that they don’t spend taxpayers’ money properly. But as the expenses scandal in the Houses of Parliament demonstrated, the only sure way of proving that public money is being used properly in any jurisdiction is to ensure full transparency and accountability for every single cent.
