Senators have so far received €210 per hour

New Seanad has sat for just 112 hours

THE country’s current senators have been paid an average of €210 an hour since being elected or appointed this year.

The 60 members of the upper house were paid more than €1.4m in pay and expenses since their election in late April – despite the house only sitting for 19 days.

In total, the Seanad sat for just over 112 hours during this time, meaning most of our senators received between €154.77 and €301.38 per hour, depending on the level of expenses they are entitled to claim.

The Seanad did not sit at all during May but its members still received a total of €473,158 in pay and expenses for this period.

There were just nine sitting days in June and 10 last month before the house was adjourned for the summer recess on July 21. It will not sit again until the end of September.

Although senators may do additional work outside the chamber, the hourly pay rate of €212.85 is calculated on the assumption of full attendance by senators on sitting days. But Oireachtas records reveal that this is seldom the case.

Despite the apparently modest schedule, more than half of the 60 senators failed to attend all nine sittings of the Seanad in June. One senator, Diarmuid Wilson, recorded attendance on only two of those sitting days.

Former TD Gabrielle McFadden, who receives an additional annual allowance of €2,682 as the Government’s chief whip in the Seanad, made seven contributions since her election – three of which consisted of no more than four words.

She said: ‘You don’t get an allowance for an office or anything like that when you’re a senator, and you do when you’re a TD. But you actually put in the same hours and you do most of the same work.’

Chicago-based senator Billy Lawless, who was nominated to the Seanad by Taoiseach Enda Kenny to give a voice to the diaspora, has spoken a total of eight times.

Yesterday, he said: ‘I have been very active over here [in Chicago] and recently met with one of the policy directors from the White House. This is where a lot of work will be done on immigration reform.’

In total, senators’ salaries cost the taxpayer €974,999 during May, June and July. A further €444,501 was paid out in allowances under the Parliamentary Standard Allowance, while additional allowances for specified positions cost amounted to around €12,791.