Oireachtas expenses are still open to abuse

Mark Mulqueen, Head of Communications at the Houses of the Oireachtas (May 9) chooses not to mention that, while TDs and senators are paid a travel allowance based on the distance between their home and Leinster House, there is no rule stopping a TD or senator from randomly choosing the further distance possible as their designated home, in order to claim the maximum possible expenses that they can.

Members of the Oireachtas are still not held to even the most basic accountability or transparency, with regard to their expenses, that you’d expect from the most humble business.

That is, providing and publishing receipts to verify that the expenses they claim were legitimately incurred in the course of their job.