McDaid’s Dáil attendance under fire

BACKBENCH TD Jim McDaid, who is refusing to give up his €22,487 ministerial pension as a “matter of principle,” has missed three out of four days from the Dáil so far this year.

Records show the Donegal North East TD was absent from Dáil votes on 18 out of a total of 25 sitting days since clocking in began on March 1.

Separate information from the new Oireachtas clocking-in system shows he had one of the worst attendance records – turning up just twice in the first nine days since the clock cards were introduced.

Dr McDaid and Noel Treacy from Galway East are the only two remaining TDs, both from Fianna Fáil, refusing to give up their ministerial pensions.

If they do not do so by tomorrow, the Government will be forced into an embarrassing Dáil vote when Fine Gael table a private members’ motion urging new legislation to ban the payments to serving TDs.

The opposition party said last night that Taoiseach Brian Cowen had “abdicated his responsibilities” by not forcing his deputies to make a decision on the matter.

Deputy Finance spokes-man Kieran O’Donnell said: “Instead of dealing with the issue directly, Brian Cowen has hidden behind legal arguments and failed to convince his Fianna Fáil colleagues to give up the pension payment.

“It is this type of political inertia and failure in leadership that has contributed over the years to the political and economic mess in which we now find ourselves as a country,” he said.

When Mr McDaid defended holding onto his pension on top of his €98,424 salary last Wednesday, he was pictured on RTÉ News from his home in Donegal, despite the Dáil being in full session.

Until the new clock-in system was introduced, attendance records were not kept but voting records were used as an indication of whether or not TDs were present.

Following news that he had one of the worst attendance records under the new system, Mr McDaid said he had “no reason” to travel to the Dáil on Mondays and Fridays because he is one of a few TDs not sitting on any committees.

“I am not going to travel to Dublin for the sake of clocking in, just to then return to my constituency,” he said.

Last week, he hit out at the “mob type frenzy” which he said led to EU Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn and five TDs giving up their ministerial pensions.

Dr McDaid said he would be keeping his ministerial pension “as a matter of principle”, because they were awarded for genuine reasons of preventing corruption and ensuring ministers were not head hunted from the private sector.