Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 18 December 2012
279. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform following his Budget 2013 announcements if he will confirm if both the travel and accommodation allowance and the public representation allowance will now be fully vouched; and the date on which this change will come into effect. [56483/12]
View answerI announced the following changes to the Oireachtas expenses allowances regime in Budget 2013;
(i) to reduce the rates of the Travel and Accommodation (TAA) element of the allowance by 25% for Dublin (less than 25km) and by 10% for the other bands (1 – 12),
(ii) to eliminate the unvouched element of the Public Representational Allowance (PRA), subject to permitting monthly expenditure in the nature of "petty cash" for incidental expenses per month of €100 for each Deputy and €75 for each Senator and subject to limits in (iii) below, and
(iii) to reduce the vouched expenditure limits under the PRA to €20,350 for Deputies, €16,000 for Minister and Minister of State, and €12,225 for Senators;
It is also intended to reduce the monthly pre-paid envelope allowance for Deputies and Senators by 50%, to 625 for Deputies and 375 for Senators, and to eliminate the unvouched options of the secretarial support allowances.
It is anticipated to introduce these changes with effect from 1 January 2013.
The PRA will be fully vouched except for a small element for incidental expenses. The payment of the TAA will continue to be verified in accordance with the system of recorded attendance set out in Statutory Instrument 84 of 2010.
