Greedy politicians have left behind nearly €20,000 of unpaid food and drink bills at Leinster House.
One senator owes €975 – while a TD has almost €500 outstanding on his bar tab.
In total, unpaid restaurant bills amount to €14,698 and the bar has been left short of €4,954, according to RTE News.
A new system introduced last April means any politician using an official tab in either of the Dail bars or the private members’ restaurant has to agree to debts more than two months old being taken out of their salary or deducted from their debit and credit cards.
However, significant costs are still being built up and 69 members face these deductions in early 2020 if they do not clear their debts.
Labour leader Brendan Howlin said the tighter regulations are a positive development.
He added: “Most people pay their bills as they go but sometimes you might have a group in and you might speak in the Dail, or so on, so you need some facility there to pay the bill subsequently.
“Everybody discharges their bills in my experience but there should be and it is right that there is a mechanism to recoup it automatically.
“It makes it so nobody is able to exploit the system.
“Every member who signs in people and so on now must have an account and you pay off your account – if it’s not it’s taken from your expenses, which is absolutely right.
“Nobody should have any unpaid debts and most people don’t. The very, very few who might, in my experience, would be people coming in and having a party in for dinner and paying the bill at the end of the month, that sort of thing.
“That’s standard fare for the 30 years I am in the Dail.
“As long as all debts are paid, there’s no issue in it at all.”
