Higgins defends using Dáil expenses in fighting ‘vicious austerity tax’
Mr Higgins said it’s “absolutely justifiable” for him and his colleague, Clare Daly, to use taxpayer-funded travel and accommodation expenses as part of their campaign against the €100 charge.
Oireachtas authorities said that they are considering whether the deputies are in breach of the rules which state expenses must be incurred by members “in the performance of his or her duties as a member of Dáil Eireann.”
Mr Higgins said he has travelled to almost every county in the past five months for “massive rallies and meetings” with people opposed to the household charge.
“It is absolutely justifiable to use a travel allowance to build a people’s campaign of opposition to a vicious austerity tax,” he said.
The Dublin West TD claimed €22,821 in un-vouched expenses last year.
He said that the anti- household charge is “not a Socialist Party campaign” but is led by ordinary people who are boycotting the charge. He was speaking after his party colleague, Clare Daly, admitted using her Dáil expenses similarly.
Asked by Vincent Browne on TV3 last week how she used her €22,821 expenses last year, she said: “I did obviously spend it on travel. I’ve been touring around the country building the household tax campaign.”
Asked if this was an appropriate way to use the expenses, she said it was being used “to represent the views of the people I was elected to represent” and she had to travel outside her constituency because “the household tax won’t be defeated in Dublin North.”
Oireachtas authorities are understood to have sought clarity from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform on the expenses system which was introduced by the late Brian Lenihan in 2010.
