Norris: I’m broke, in debt to the bank and close to quitting politics

Former presidential candidate Senator David Norris has said he is broke, in debt to the bank and close to leaving politics.

The lecturer said he was financially wiped out as he accused some Seanad colleagues of double-jobbing and he defended the system of expenses for Oireachtas members.

He made his comments as Brendan Howlin, the public expenditure minister, outlined political reform and efforts to reduce Government costs to the Seanad.

Mr Norris surprised colleagues when, during an outburst yesterday, he called for equality in the upper house and also said the system of funding for candidates in elections had to be changed.

“I have given 40 years of public service in this country. I have continually put my money where my mouth was,” he said.

The author — who came fifth in last year’s presidential election — said he had spent his own funds suing the state over the criminalisation of homosexuality, the starting of the James Joyce Centre, backing the idea of Temple Bar, as well as campaigning in elections.

Mr Norris said he had listened to senators make their case on cutting expenses, including some who “had other good jobs, who admit to double-jobbing”.

But he added: “I, at the age of nearly 70, am wiped out financially. I have no savings left. I’m in debt to the bank. And I hear people coming in saying ‘let’s scrap the allowances for this, that and the other’...

“I feel very, very, very close to getting out of this house, while there’s a few bob left, before I’m an old man.”

He asked Mr Howlin to look at the expenses system for candidates in presidential elections, claiming it unfairly favoured party nominees.

Mr Howlin said Ireland would be a worse place without Mr Norris’s “sterling contribution towards public affairs and public life”. He regretted that Mr Norris found himself in a position where he was “impoverished”.

Mr Norris spent €331,974 on his presidential campaign, receiving just €17,929 in public donations, according to Standards in Public Office records. He failed to win 12.5% of the vote-needed to be reimbursed by the State for up to €200,000 in expenses.