Minister probes bar scandal and rounds on TDs who don’t pay for their rounds
JUSTICE Minister Charlie Flanagan is looking into the mystery of the unpaid Dáil bar and restaurant tabs, branding it ‘unacceptable’.
The Minister was responding to a report from the Oireachtas Commission which revealed that €4,717 of debt to the Dáil restaurant – and a further €765 of historic debt to the Dáil Bar – had been written off because there is ‘no realistic prospect of recovery of the sums due’.
And Mr Flanagan has told debtors that they should pay up now as they are bringing ‘the profession of politics into disrepute’.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said earlier last week that ‘the Oireachtas Commission should look at mechanisms of deducting that money from people’s ‘salaries or pensions’.
Now the Justice Minister has weighed in with the warning that TDs and Senators should repay all monies due immediately.
Mr Flanagan said: ‘This news about bar tabs not being paid brings the profession of politics into disrepute and I am seeking further information into how this could occur.’
The Dáil bar and restaurant are independent entities. However, Mr Flanagan said: ‘TDs and senators not paying their debts are unacceptable, these are debts due and owed, and, I am seeking this information immediately.’
The Minister warned that the current scenario was ‘all the more deplorable because politics is having a difficult time – populist attacks have increased seriously, he said, and ‘cynicism is rife’.
This latest debacle, Mr Flanagan warned, is fuel for the ‘Twitter warlords who want to denigrate politics... they are having a field day.
‘We have been seriously let down by our own. Those who owe money should pay up their dues immediately,’ he said.
Echoing the view of the Taoiseach – who said that ‘everyone should pay their bills, particularly politicians’ – Mr Flanagan said there was ‘a special responsibility on elected representatives to be seen to pay our debts’.