Politicans still claiming €25-a-day allowance for scrapped phone fees*
TDS and Senators are still claiming an unvouched phone allowance of €25 a day when on official business in the EU, two-and-a-half years after mobile roaming charges were abolished.
The ‘daily telephone allowance’ has been claimed more than 50 times at a cost of over €3,000 since February of 2018 when it was first highlighted in the Irish Mail on Sunday.
Despite that, no move has been made by either the Oireachtas or the Department of Public Expenditure for it to be vouched against mobile phone bills or abolished altogether.
However, after queries from the MoS the Department of Public Expenditure has now committed to consultation with Leinster House authorities to examine the ‘need for its continuation’.
Records obtained under Freedom of Information legislation reveal how claims totalling €3,450 have been made under the scheme for EU travel since February 2018.
That related to 52 separate trips to destinations including Belfast, London, Brussels and Luxembourg.
The largest number of claims was made by Fine Gael TD Alan Farrell, who was paid €550 for six trips, on which he travelled to Copenhagen, Luxembourg, Milan, Berlin and twice to Vienna.
Mr Farrell told the MoS: ‘Because of my work with the OSCE [Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe], I am a regular caller to countries like Georgia and places like that. That is the nature of the organisation that I am part of.
‘I’m a regular caller to the United States as well. That’s part of the reason why I would have a reason to use it because I’m calling these people, particularly when I’m in Vienna [for OSCE events] and those other destinations.
‘I would say many of the other places I’ve been over the years, it is certainly used for the purposes intended. I’m perfectly open for it to be reformed and they are perfectly entitled to do that if they wish.
‘I can certainly understand that it is something that needs to be looked at and I would prefer if the entire system was vouched, including our travel and accommodation allowance from Leinster House.’
Fianna Fáil’s Lisa Chambers made claims totalling €525 for the daily telephone allowance for trips that were made within the EU.
On a four-day trip to Vienna in February 2018, she claimed €100, and on a fiveday trip to Berlin in May of the same year, she claimed €125. Four other smaller claims for trips to Paris, Luxembourg, and twice to Brussels were also made.
When contacted by phone over the weekend, Ms Chambers asked that our query be sent via text or email. The question was submitted via text but no response had been received at the time of publication.
In total, 22 politicians from all of the major political parties except Labour claimed the daily telephone allowance while travelling in the EU, according to the Oireachtas records.
They include wellknown names such as TD Michael Healy-Rae for a trip to London, Green Party leader Eamon Ryan (Vienna), Senator Frances Black (Belfast and London), and Senator Michelle Mulherin (Zagreb).
When the Irish Mail on Sunday first highlighted the issue around the unvouched allowance, two politicians who had claimed it – Senators Catherine Noone and Frank Feighan – said it needed to be examined. Neither of them has made any further claims under the scheme.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Public Expenditure said that ‘while roaming charges no longer apply in the EU, it is the case that members may incur charges while travelling in other areas’.
She said: ‘Where roaming charges apply, members are required to formally claim for the expense incurred through the normal procedures.
‘It is the Department’s understanding that it is the practice that members when claiming are advised as to the position on roaming and related charges.’
However, FOI requests to the Oireachtas seeking information relating to that advice and the daily telephone allowance have been refused on the basis that no such records exist.
The Department spokeswoman continued: ‘[We] will consult with the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission to ascertain its views on the operation of the scheme as currently constituted and the need
for its continuation.’
‘I’d prefer if the whole system was vouched’