TDs splash out €1,733 on cups for the dustbin
WALLETS costing €782, two UN flags with a price tag of €353 each and almost €20,000 to buy mobile phones for TDs and senators were among the bills racked up in Leinster House last year.
The Oireachtas forked out €19,850 on the so-called direct purchase scheme, which allowed 29 different politicians to claim up to €750 to buy a new phone and accessories.
Another €78,844 was paid out in constituency office grants to reimburse first-time TDs for the cost of setting up shop in their home base.
And a further €40,708 was claimed in ‘telephone allowances’, which are paid to certain officeholders, including committee chairs and party whips.
The Oireachtas also paid out €1,600 for gifts for visiting dignitaries and VIPs. This comprised card holders costing €276, wallets adorned with the Dáil Éireann logo, plus €542 for A6 notebooks and pens.
The pest control bill was almost €70,000, with a significant amount spent on an innovative system to target moth infestations in parliament.
Spraying for months, along with installation of a so-called Exosex system – that uses pheromones to trick moths into mating with the same sex – accounted for nearly two-thirds of the extermination expenditure, according to a database of costs released under Freedom of Information (FOI).
Furniture costs of just over €96,000 were also listed, which included significant spending on work-from-home chairs or desks for staff due to the pandemic.
Among the purchases were €1,984 for perspex for the Seanad, five sitstand desks costing €4,649 and €5,336 on chairs for home offices.
Other items purchased included two UN flags costing €707 for use during Dáil sittings at the Convention Centre on Dublin’s quays.
There was a water bill of around €1,847 with most of that spending – €1,733 in total – on disposable cups for the Leinster House complex.
One of the largest bills was for broadcasting and tech equipment with just under €89,000 spent.
Included in that category were €15,000 for a tape digitisation system, just over €10,000 for VTR players and cables and €12,178 for a HD (HighDefinition) decoder upgrade.
Small bills for entertainment were also run up by the offices of the Ceann Comhairle and the Cathaoirleach of the Seanad.
These included €125 for an evening meal, a €20 bottle of house wine, as well as various light lunches and refreshments.
Travel and accommodation costs – both at home and abroad – came to more than €150,000.
The largest spend in that category was a down-payment of €10,000 to the luxury Westin Hotel in Dublin to host a Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe later this year.
‘Travel and accommodation costs came to €150,000’