Taxpayers fork out €25k to keep TDs in smartphones
TAXPAYERS picked up a near €25,000 tab to ensure our elected politicians have the most up-to-date smartphones on the market last year.
Figures released under Freedom of Information reveal the Oireachtas paid a bill of €24,400 for a direct purchase scheme which allows TDs and senators to buy a new phone every 18 months, up to a cost of €750.
Of the 39 transactions listed under the scheme for last year, 19 were for the maximum amount allowable.
Other Leinster House bills for last year include more than €50,000 on hospitality and entertainment by the Houses of the Oireachtas.
The bills included a lunch hosted by the Ceann Comhairle costing €1,330, a €2,990 canape reception during US president Joe Biden’s visit, and a dinner bill of €1,142 for an Irish-American delegation.
A database of expenditure from 2023 also details more unorthodox spending, such as €80 for 50 fidget spinners as sensory supports to make Ireland’s parliament more autismfriendly, €72 for flags and whistles for the Pride festival, and an outlay of €1,068 for traditional wallets for presentation.
There was a substantial bill of €180,000 for furniture and fittings which included a significant outlay for flag poles, with four transactions at a total of more than €10,000.
A spokeswoman for the Oireachtas said this covered the purchase of several dozen wooden flag poles – and flags of various countries – used for events and in various meeting rooms around Leinster House.
Around €3,600 was spent on paper cups and filtered water.
The Oireachtas also forked out €31,000 in telephone allowances, which can be paid to committee chairs and party whips as an additional payment to reflect the extra duties involved in their jobs.
The bill for overseas trips, mileage, and domestic travel costs came to more than €817,000 in the spending data provided by the Oireachtas. That included nearly €13,000 to cover mileage by the Ceann Comhairle’s office, and travel and subsistence costs of around €3,600. Some €10,250 was spent on car hire, almost all related to a visit by a delegation from Nepal, as part of an Inter-Parliamentary Union trip to Ireland last September.
Incidental costs related to travel came to €5,800, which included €1,901 for a ‘cycling study tour’, €487 for a visit to a solar farm, and €1,382 for another bike study for the Joint Committee on the Environment. Also listed was €4,795 for carbon credits to offset the carbon footprint of TDs and senators jetting off around the world.