Zappone doesn’t have to accept all entitlements
Ms Zappone was elected on the basis that she was a fresh face and would be different to all the dull, grey cronies and hacks who went before her.
Yet, her record raises more questions than it answers.
The Oireachtas website shows that, as a non-elected senator, she accepted tax-free, unverified expenses, every month, on top of her salary, of €2,751.67, or €165,000 over the term.
What was this for and what did she spend it on and why has never once published a receipt? The €2,751.67 is not based on specified expenses incurred, but is the maximum the former senator was ‘entitled’ to claim.
Since then, she has accepted nearly €50,000, as an independent TD allowance, plus she now accepts €2,445, tax-free per month, on top of her increased salary, and again not a receipt in sight.
If Ms Zappone wants to bask in the glow of operating to a higher moral level than her colleagues, then she must behave accordingly.
Her defence was that she didn’t break any rules.
No one accused of her breaking any rules, but how often do we hear that defence, which is a sly side-stepping of the issue.
Ms Zappone doesn’t have to accept these expenses. She can return them and no-one is stopping her from publishing either receipts to verify what expenses she incurs or audited accounts of how she funded her election.
It is such a disappointment that, yet again, a new TD turns out to be the same as the old ones. So much for electing women, who allegedly would act differently.
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