14 Nov 2011, 12:04
The following accurate description of the Houses of the Oireachtas supplementary estimate may be of interest to anyone following this story. The 'Mail on Sunday' grossly misrepresented the following facts in it's front page article yesterday
Supplementary Estimate 2011
A Supplementary Estimate for the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission for €13.963 million was noted by the Dáil on 27 September in accordance with legislation and was published on the Oireachtas Website on the same day.
This supplementary estimate was necessary because there was no provision for election costs (Dáil and Seanad) in the 2011 statement of estimates on the basis that the elections were not due until 2012.
The main categories where additional monies were required are -
- subhead 2(f) which provides for termination payments to be made to retiring/ defeated members
- subhead 2(h) which provides for payment of pension lump sums and pensions when termination payments are finished
- subheads 4(a) and 4(b) from which redundancy payments are made to those employed under the secretarial assistance scheme(Secretaries for Members of the Houses) who are not re-employed after the elections.
There were smaller additional sums required for (a) the wages of the catering and bar staff (underestimation of amount required) and (b) for televising of the proceedings (a quarterly advance payment due in December 2010 was not paid till January as there was a delay in signing the new televising contract resulting in 5 quarterly payments in 2011).
The additional amounts will be offset by a range of savings on other subheads totalling just over €5.3m.
2012 Estimates
The Estimates for 2012 on first reading will look greater than 2011. However, it should be noted that there is no “increase” in the salaries or wages, travel or subsistence rates being paid. Rather, the estimate for 2012 in these categories is based on a normal “Sitting” year for the Houses of the Oireachtas. In that regard 2011 was not, as for a portion of this year we did not have to pay full salaries to TDs for the whole year. TDs only received one eighteenth of salary from the date the election was called to the date the election was held. In addition, there was not a full quota of 166 TDs for 2011.
As 2011 was not a typical sitting year in the Houses of the Oireachtas, inter-parliamentary travel was limited and the amount estimated for 2012 reflects a normal sitting year.