Dáil bar bills to be taken from TDs’ salary

CONTROVERSIAL hefty tabs in the Dáil restaurant and bar are set to become a thing of the past as a new credit policy is to be introduced which will see ‘aged debt’ deducted from their salary.

All members of the Oireachtas – TDs and senators – were yesterday issued with a letter about the ‘new credit-facility arrangement for bar and restaurant purchases’.

The new payment system comes after Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said last August it was his view that ‘members and former members should pay their bills’.

He also said he would encourage the Oireachtas Commission to consider how to deduct money from their salaries.

The system will come into place on April 23, and ‘members will be required in advance of making any new purchases on credit’ to complete an attached ‘application and deduction mandate form’.

The letter states that this form will ‘authorise the Oireachtas Service to arrange for any outstanding aged debt balances to be deducted by the preferred payment method’.

Cork TD Michael Collins last year raised this issue in the same interview in which he called for the Dáil bar to be shut down.

It was reported late last year that an Oireachtas annual report revealed officials had been forced to write off more than €5,000 in unpaid Dáil bar tab bills – at the taxpayer’s expense – dating back to the early 2000s as there was no realistic prospect of the sums due being recovered.