Fianna Fáil the big spenders as Sipo allowances list published

Expenditure of €2,023,729 was more than revealed by other parties, ten independent senators and 19 independent TDs 

Micheál Martin and other party leaders are  required to furnish annual statements of expenditure for these allowances to the Standards In Public Office Commission.

Fianna Fáil spent the most allowance of any party in the Dáil in 2022.

Annual allowances are paid to leaders of parliamentary parties for expenses arising from the party’s parliamentary activities.

Party leaders are required to furnish annual statements of expenditure for these allowances to the Standards In Public Office Commission (Sipo).

In 2022, the leaders of Aontú, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Green Party, Independents 4 Change, People Before Profit/ Solidarity, Sinn Féin, Social Democrats and the Labour Party all made statements to Sipo.

In addition, ten independent senators and 19 independent TDs were required to furnish statements.

The total funding in 2022 in allowances to the leaders of the nine qualifying parties was €7,992,122.

Funding made available to non-party members of the Dáil amounted to €738,759, while funding made available to non-party members of the Seanad amounted to €215,723.

Fianna Fáíl was the party which spent the most of their allowance last year – with an expenditure of €2,023,729.

As a result of their spending, it was left with just €44,220 as a closing balance in 2022.

Fine Gael received €1,707,38 from Sipo in 2022 on top of its closing balance from 2021 of €628,993, with an expenditure of €1,783,894 including €1,358,497 on “the purchase of support services for a parliamentary party from the party”. As a result, it was left with €552,479 going in to 2023.

Sinn Féín was awarded the most of any party by Sipo in 2022, with their allowance of €2,122,980 added to its closing balance of 2021 of €1,492,870 meaning it had more than €3.5m in allowances last year.

Its expenditure of €1,588,301 included more than €1m on “the general administration of the parliamentary activities of a qualifying party” and €306,331 on policy formulation.

That left the party with a closing balance going in to 2023 of €2,027,549.

Having gone into 2022 with a balance of €106,263, the Green Party was awarded €699,340 by Sipo – which it spent every penny of, leaving a closing balance of €0.

The Social Democrats received €405,461, while the Labour Party was given €649,785.

Their spending left the parties with closing balances of €445,529 and €884,145 respectively.

Independents

Every Independent TD received the same allowance from Sipo in 2022 - €38,882. Cork South-West TD Michael Collins spent €37,782, the majority on research and training and policy formulation.

After his expenditure, he was left with €6,380 as a closing balance for 2022.

Both Michael and Danny Healy-Rae carried allowances over from 2021– with Michael bringing €10,082 across while Danny took €4,589.

Of his spend of €41,294, Michael spent just over €40,000 on research and training, with a further €386 on “entertainment,” to leave him with a closing balance of €7,671. Meanwhile, Danny put €12,555 into policy formulation among other expenses which resulted in a closing balance of €5,226.

Clare TD Michael McNamara spent €28,404 – the entirety of which was on "polling or public attitude sampling in connection with parliamentary debates or initiatives". Mattie McGrath was the Independent TD who spent the most from his Sipo allowance in 2022.

His expenditure of €53,378 was more than €5,500 more than any other Independent – with Mr McGrath spending €34,112 on research and training alone.