Expenses extraordinary, says non-claiming TD

The only TD not to claim expenses in 2011 has criticised the perks enjoyed by politicians as a review gets under way on the allowance system.

Labour’s Eamon Maloney did not claim one cent in expenses last year, even though some of his party colleagues received allowances of over €50,000.

Parties are to be canvassed in the coming weeks in an effort to overhaul the expenses system and make it more transparent.

It emerged this week that TDs claimed €600,000 for December and €6m in unvouched and vouched expenses since the new Dáil began in Mar 2011.

Mr Maloney questioned why the generous payments existed at all. They are paid to TDs on top of an annual salary of €92,672.

“I don’t know of any public servant in Ireland who gets paid for turning up to work,” he told thejournal.ie. “If you can find someone in the public or private sectors who does, or who is lucky enough to have a job in the first place, but the concept of paying someone who already gets a salary to show themselves in the parliament — I just find it extraordinary.”

The Dublin South West TD said he never claimed expenses as a councillor and was not going to start doing so in Leinster House.

“As TDs, we earn a huge amount of money already — over €90,000 a year. I was on the dole before I was elected because I’d lost my job two years before the election, and I’d worked in a factory before that.”

Meanwhile, the chair of a committee charged with reviewing how TDs claim expenses says he wants to see the allowance system being worked out more clearly.

Tom Hayes, the Oireachtas joint administrative committee chairman, said: “We are going to make recommendations to make them more transparent. But I don’t think they can be. They’ve come a long way from where they were before. And we’ve got one of the best [expenses] systems in Europe.”

All parties will be asked to submit suggestions, but the final decision will rest with Brendan Howlin, the public expenditure minister.