Varadkar: Take unpaid Dáil bar bills from TDs’ pay

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has urged Oireachtas officials to deduct thousands of euro in unpaid Dáil bar debt from TDs and senators’ salaries or pensions, insisting nobody is allowed to blatantly ignore their bills.

Mr Varadkar made the comment as an opposition TD warned there is a “smell of booze” around Leinster House and that TDs are regularly “slurring words or not being able to put sentences together” during late night Dáil votes.

An Oireachtas annual report released earlier this week said officials have been forced to write off €5,405 in unpaid Dáil bar tab bills dating back to the early 2000s due to the fact there is “no realistic prospect of recovery of the sums due”.