New Year cutbacks in salaries and expenses for deputies

THE Government has introduced wide-ranging cutbacks in the amount of salaries and expenses paid to deputies from the start of the New Year in the wake of deteriorating public finances and criticism of remuneration for Oireachtas members.

Deputies Joe Carey and Deputy Timmy Dooley will be paid an annual salary of €92,672 as backbenchers, which has been reduced from €100,191, while Deputy Pat Breen, who was elected in May 2002, will be entitled to be paid €95,550 once he has completed seven years of service later this year.
Minister of State Tony Killeen is paid a basic annual salary of €92,672 plus a minister of state’s salary of €46,594, which has been reduced from €54,549.
Dáil deputies are entitled to a one-off grant of €8,000, which has been reduced from €8,888.17. This is paid when a deputy is first elected to establish and equip a constituency office. 
This allowance is not paid again at subsequent elections, even if a deputy remains in office for the following 20 years.
Once Clare deputies are elected to the Dáil, they are entitled to an unvouched constituency travel allowance and miscellaneous expense monthly allowance of €914.31. Clare is included in Constituency Band B, where the annual allowance has been reduced from €5,489 to €5,000.
The annual Constituency Office Maintenance Allowance of €8,000 has been reduced from €8,888.17. This allowance is paid to cover costs of running a constituency office and to offset rent, rates, light, heat and so on in constituency offices. 
Payment is made twice yearly in January and July of €4,000 on production of a signed declaration that the deputy is incurring expenses in maintaining a constituency office.
The annual telephone allowance of €5,700 is down from €6,348.69 and is paid to deputies from the date of their election to the Houses of the Oireachtas. The allowance is unvouched.    
The yearly miscellaneous allowance of €5,000, cut from €5,482.73, per annum for deputies is unvouched and paid with the member’s salary from the date of election to the Houses of the Oireachtas.
Deputies can claim a mobile phone allowance on production of an original receipt from the service provider.  Members purchase the mobile phone and are refunded the amount up to €750 maximum every 18 months. Mobile call costs are not refunded.
Travel and subsistence is claimed by members by completing a claim form and declaring their attendance subject to a maximum amount based on their distance from Leinster House.
For example, Deputy Timmy Dooley was paid €4,407 for Dáil travel and subsistence from January 1, 2008 to January 28, 2008.
Mileage rates for senators and deputies have been reduced by 25% from March 5, 2009.  The current reduced rates are .5907 per kilometre for the first 6,347 kilometres in the calendar year and .2846 per kilometre for every kilometre after that.
The overnight allowance is currently set at €126, reduced from €139.67 per night. Members recouping this allowance may claim one overnight allowance for the night before and also for the night of a sitting of Dáil Éireann, if they are a TD; for the night before and for the night of a sitting of an Oireachtas committee or an Oireachtas sub-committee of which they are a member, or at which they are attending as a nominated substitute for another member who is unable to attend.
Deputies have a number of options under the Special Secretarial Allowance. They can engage a parliamentary assistant and pay him or her €41,092 or pool two members of their individual staff at the same cost.
Deputy Killeen has used this allowance to cover the cost of advertising his constituency clinics in the local media and for covering the cost of employing Dunphy Public Relations.
The minister of state claimed €9,408 under this allowance in 2005, including €8,500 to pay for work completed by the Right Word Company; €10,810 in 2006, including €8,800 for The Right Word; €23,589 in 2007 including €9,373 for Dunphy Public Relations and €1,755 for publishing clinics in The Clare Champion; €41,092 in 2008 including €33,326 for Dunphy Public Relations and €1,131 for The Clare Champion and 19,452 in 2009.

Expenses paid to Deputy Pat Breen from May 17, 2002 to September 30, 2009.
2002    €36,945
2003    €87,688
2004    €81,689
2005    €72,744
2006    €61,966
2007    €74,424
2008    €87,283
2009    €56,984.

Expenses paid to Deputy Tony Killeen from May 17, 2002 to September 30, 2009.
2002    €56,249
2003    €74,867
2004    €71,292
2005    €27,659
2006    €28,586
2007    €35,581
2008    €50,911
2009    €27,408.

Expenses paid to Deputy Joe Carey from May 24, 2007 to September 30, 2009.
2007    €34,634
2008    €69,632
2009    €57,449.

Expenses paid to Deputy Timmy Dooley from May 24, 2007 to September 30, 2009.
2007    €32,268
2008    €73,366
2009    €57,121.