BOOZE SORRY NOW.. taoiseach slams politicians who owe dail bar..after ‘€965 debt’ by his department is written off
THE Taoiseach was left red-faced after slamming politicians who owe money to the Dail bar – when it was revealed his department was one of the worst offenders.
Leo Varadkar said those who refuse to pay their pub tabs and restaurant bills should have the amount deducted from their salary.
But a breakdown of €5,500 written off by the Oireachtas showed one of the biggest debts was €965 owed by the Department of the Taoiseach.
Mr Varadkar’s officials dispute the figures, saying they can prove they paid €785 of it.
A spokesman said: “The amounts listed … refer to years 2004 to 2010, which relates to catering services provided by the Houses of the Oireachtas for official meetings and events held in the Department and does not relate to bar facilities.”
The Freedom of Information request also showed €4,500 was owed by six politicians, several Departments, two committees, the Government press office, and Fine Gael.
One former representative owed a total of €943 to the restaurant, which will not be pursued.
Another had a €301 bar debt and that has also been cancelled.
Four other politicians, all either retired or who have lost their seats, owed totals of between €66 and €267 to the bar and restaurant, none of which will be chased up.
The Houses of the Oireachtas has said it will not identify the six politicians who benefitted from the write-off but none of them were serving TDS or Senators.
They said there was evidence that “strongly suggested” their own records may not be accurate.
The Houses added in a couple of cases ex-politicians had even been able to provide evidence that some of the debts had been paid.
The Oireachtas has, however, decided to release details of Government bodies.
The departments of Defence, Foreign Affairs, and Social Protection had owed €417, €404 and €284 respectively. The Department of Justice had a tab of €692 but again the Oireachtas has said it cannot be certain if their records are accurate. The practice of providing credit to politicians is the subject of a review. The figures showed a €37,256 tab in August with €5,375 owed to the bar and the majority of €31,881 still not paid to the restaurant.
Total cleared debt that was owed to the Dail bar and restaurant