TDs and senators owe Dáil bar €1,800

HIGHLY-PAID TDs and senators have racked up almost €2,000 in unpaid Dáil bar costs since the start of this year – with €1,378 of the debt owed by just one Oireachtas member.

The Irish Examiner has learned that despite the country’s perilous financial situation, public representatives on lucrative salaries, pensions, allowances and expenses are continuing to socialise at the taxpayers’ expense.

As former ministers “gift” back lucrative pensions, Freedom of Information Act figures show that between January 1 and March 31 this year, Dáil bar staff were told TDs and senators could not pay in cash for €1,837-worth of drinks.

As a result, the money was placed on the individual TDs and senators’ tabs – alongside a total of €7,171.33 in bar debt since the last general election.

According to Oireachtas officials, who have refused to reveal the identities of any of the public representatives involved, over the past three years the Dáil bar tab has risen from €3,875.94 in December 2007, to €7,171.33 by the end of March 2010.

Just 17 of the 42 TDs or senators with bar debts at the end of 2007 had paid off their tab more than three years later, with the overall drinks debt almost doubling during this period.

In one case, an unnamed public representative now owes €1,378.15, while 19 more have failed to pay off individual 2010 bar tabs ranging between €103 and €569.30 since the start of this year.

A total of 60 TDs or senators currently have debts at the Dáil bar, compared to 42 in 2007 and 45 in 2008 and 2009.

Due to Oireachtas subsidies, alcohol sold at the Dáil bar is among the cheapest in Dublin. A 2007 Leinster House audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) found that a pint of Guinness cost just €3.70 – 35% cheaper than the average cost in the capital at the time.

The C&AG has previously raised concerns over the slow rate at which TDs and senators pay off their bar debts and the lack of transparency involved.

However, in keeping with previous Freedom of Information requests on the issue, Oireachtas officials have refused to reveal the identities of the Dáil debtors.

Officials have also refused to clarify whether they impose any limit on the amount of money that can be owed by an individual, and whether there is any cut-off point for when a tab must be written off.

Last June the Irish Examiner revealed that one unnamed Oireachtas member owed more than €5,612.80 for restaurant food and Dáil bar drink.

A total of 12 other TDs or senators whose identities were kept secret had also failed to settle bar debts of between €1,000 and €3,000 at the time.

Overall, the June 2009 figures showed that 157 of the Oireachtas’s 226 TDs and Senators owed a total of €74,941 for meals consumed, ranging from €5,612.80 to just 22c.

Overall, 37 of the 226 members owed a total of €4,419, with the average debt working out at €127.56.