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Updated: 16 May
THE MEMBERS OF Dáil Éireann claimed a total of €583,003.34 in travel and accommodation expenses during March and the last four days of February, new figures reveal.
That’s despite only two Dáil sittings during that period.
Figures for the Parliamentary Standard Allowance (PSA), which includes the Travel and Accommodation Allowance (TAA) and Public Representation Allowance (PRA), were published on Wednesday.
An analysis by TheJournal.ie shows an extraordinarily high payment rate, despite the unusually low number of sittings.
From 1 to 30 March – a period for which TDs claimed €515,014 in expenses – the Dáil sat on two occasions: 10 and 22 March. The 15 members of the sub-committee on Dáil reform held one meeting, on 23 March.
By contrast, there were 12 Dáil sittings, and a total of 44 committee and sub-committee meetings in March last year.
That month, deputies claimed €508,083 in expenses – less than the €515,014 claimed for March this year, despite there being eight more members of Dáil Éireann in 2015.
According to the official Oireachtas website, the Travel and Accommodation Allowance is:
…Based on the distance from the member’s normal place of residence to Leinster House and covers the costs associated with travel to and from Leinster House, overnights and, for TDs only, other travel expenses including constituency travel.
The annual payable allowance is divided into geographic bands, and ranges between €9,000 a year for a TD living within 25 km (15.5 miles) of Leinster House, and €34,065 a year for a TD living more than 360 km (224 miles) from the Dáil.
Office holders, such as government ministers and the Ceann Comhairle, are paid at a slightly lower rate.
At the start of each year, TDs certify their habitual place of residence, and are paid the TAA every month on this basis.
This predetermined payment rate is likely part of the reason why the overall PSA bill for March surpassed €500,000, even though there were only two sitting days.
At the end of each year, deputies must show that they were present in the Dáil for at least 120 days, or 1% of their yearly TAA is deducted for every day under 120 days that they did not attend.
The attendance record for each TD in March can be found here.
The second component of the Parliamentary Standard Allowance is the PRA – Public Representation Allowance.
This allows TDs to write off certain expenses associated with their work – such as office rental and furniture, phone bills, hiring meeting rooms, printing leaflets and newsletters, and so on.
The maximum yearly allowance for TDs is €20,350. At the start of each year, deputies certify how much PRA they want to take each month.
If their actual spending is less than this amount, they must repay the difference at the end of the year. If they end up spending more than their monthly allowance, they can receive a rebate at the end of the year, up to the total annual PRA of €20,350.
Ten percent of TDs are randomly selected for an audit at the end of the year, so deputies are supposed to keep receipts and invoices relating to the PRA in case of this eventuality, but they do not have to provide evidence as they go along.
The annual PRA for ministers is about 20% lower than that of TDs. Given the geographic bands associated with the Travel and Accommodation Allowance, it’s not surprising that the TDs who claimed the most from 26 February to 30 March were from the most far-flung constituencies.
All 158 TDs in the 32nd Dáil were listed as having claimed expenses for March and the end of February, with the exception of Brendan Howlin, Willie O’Dea, and Aindrias Moynihan.
We asked all three why they did not appear on the list of expenses for this period.
Moynihan, a newly-elected Fianna Fáil TD for Cork North-West, told us that his claim was filed late, but that he would be claiming expenses for February and March, at a later date.
A spokesperson for Howlin told us his PSA claim for the period was still being processed, but would be published at a later date.
The publication of TDs’ expenses for March brings to €3.4 million the total amount known to have been paid to members of the Dáil and government ministers, between the general election on 26 February, and the formation of the new government last Friday.
That total of €3,388,205.27 will grow when the PSA figures for April are published, and TDs are paid their salaries for May – five days of which were spent without a government.
And at the end of June, figures will be published for the Parliamentary Activities Allowance (formerly the Party Leaders’ Allowance), from the same period.
Originally published: 14 May
Correction: This article has been changed to reflect the fact that a spokesperson for Brendan Howlin did in fact respond to our query regarding his absence from the March PSA figures. We apologise for the omission.
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Of course we should. Better pay/ conditions/ equipment for our defence forces = Better outcomes/ better security. As things stand, we are virtually defenceless and rely on others, all while loudly pontificating to others who are facing/ dealing with many hybrid threats.
@honey badger: I would say yes as well but I would love to see a referendum on neutrality to finally put it to bed.
We can’t expect to reap the benifits of a free, open, democratic society if we’re not willing to stand up for it.
@Stanley Marsh: We should. Your last line reminded me of Sean Lemass saying that if Europe was worth being a part of, it was worth defending. Its fate is our fate.
@Stanley Marsh: We are a small island who couldn’t even get Northern Ireland back. To say you want to fight for foreign lands who did nothing for us is ridiculous
@honey badger: It’s not worth being a part of. They do nothing except load asylum seekers on Ireland
@Beachvibe: Bore off, dikhead.
@honey badger: Bore off far left nut. If you want to fight in foreign wars spend your own life and money on it not ours dikhead
@honey badger: You encouraged the Irish government to spend 1 billion euro on asylum seekers last year
@Stanley Marsh: Referendums in Ireland never put anything to bed. Just builds new, other beds to whinge about.
@Beachvibe: Where did I say that?
@John Moylan: They are however, the only way we have of finding out the will of the people.
@Beachvibe: Go back to bed, will ya…
@honey badger: we can never spend enough so we can defend ourselves. So it’s waste.
I agree with paying additional allowances depending on the risk involved in the duty.
@honey badger: Spending more on defence as a neutral country is a great idea, spending more on defence as a slippery slope into the EU army, NATO and giving up neutrality is not.
You have a really gung-ho attitude to war, given you never have and never will take part in one, stick to call of duty.
What and who are we supposed to be defending against
@pauley870: terrorism, drug shipments, and to police are own waters, to name a few.
@Richard Dignam: Russian sub sea sabotage mitigation too
@pauley870: wake up pauley
@pauley870: Oliver Cromwell.
@pauley870: migrants that’s who
@Glen Kelly: they are not the enemy. Get off TikTok!
@Glen Kelly: Don’t forget bigots
@Neil Doherty: tik Tok are you having a laugh
@Jack Hayes: get the boat you
@pauley870: Trump
@Unknown Unknown: We rely on the US fool.
@John Murphy: Russia Sub sea sabotage? Well one we don’t own any sub sea equipment. 2 we can only use our military to patrol up to 12 nautical miles off our coast. So if anyone is beyond 12 nautical miles of our coast which is international waters and damages sub sea equipment there is nothing our military could do. So how can we stop russian sub sea sabotage? Please inform me
@John Murphy: falling for the government and weapon manufacturers propaganda John ,following the money usually gives the answers
@Richard Dignam: agree but we need a much better Coastguard customs and immigration control and more Guards and community policing. Not more defence spending. Who exactly is going to invade Ireland?
@pauley870: you’d swear we were never invaded.
Yes, absolutely and we should join NATO as we currently rely on the UK for air defence, at least make it official
@keith fay: NATO’s future is in doubt with Trump and after 4 years, who knows what kind of condition it’ll be in and the next US president may not pivot back to it. We should focus on a European focused defensive strategy, Whether that’s EU centric or EU plus others (UK).
@danmullins3: Fair enough, though Ireland should definitely pull the finger and stop proclaiming to be neutral, either become fully neutral, like Switzerland, including proper self defence forces, or join a military alliance, be it NATO, or a European project, instead of just relying on others for protection, because, let’s face it, if Russia were to make good on its threats and start attacking Europe, they wouldn’t care if Ireland says “Oi, stop, we’re neutral” without having at least some power to back up those words
@Larissa Caroline Nikolaus: Who have we relied on for protection? Can you please give us dates and times where Ireland was about to be attacked and an outside military stepped in to stop said attack? If Russia was to make good and start attacking Europe they won’t care if we say we’re neutral?. Possibly not. But tell me this how many countries in Europe who you say Russia have attacked will allow the Russia army and navy to stroll by so their nations so Russia can invade us?.
@keith fay: Nope. We need to be neutral.
@keith fay: Who is entering Irish airspace?
@keith fay: yep, take the place the USA leaves.
@Larissa Caroline Nikolaus: We should become fully neutral. And foreigners shouldn’t be telling Ireland what to do.
@danmullins3: no, the US’s future as a member of NATO may be in doubt (should be), but NATO itself will evolve without the US.
We can’t be pathetic forever. Relying on a foreign country to protect us is embarrassing. Spend less on NGO’s and other unnecessary stuff and spend more on defence!
@common sense: you are looking at Ireland from the wrong view.
@common sense: What we need is defence from our own government.
@common sense: Protect from whom?
@common sense: We wouldn’t need protection if you stopped putting Ireland in other people’s wars
No
We should reduce social welfare and increase military expenditure.
No put them to work on our ports to stop the illegals coming in instead of wasting bullets up in the hills
@John Kenny: Unleash them on bigots.
@John Kenny: you are doing too much doom scrolling on TikTok it seems.
@Jack Hayes: interesting thought….bigots for live fire training, they could sell tickets or PPV to supplement costs.
Yes, but Housing First
@RIP: They spent 1 billion euro on asylum seekers last year. Foreigners always come before the Irish
@Beachvibe: So 1 billion out of the 96.6 billion spent is some how putting Foreigners first? Could you explain your thinking there?
Spending “more on defence” is not the right question. Of course we can beef up deficient parts of our defence system and recruit more personnel (and pay them better) but I suspect the question is designed to make it look like most people want to become part of a militarised Europe on a war footing against Russia. In that case, my answer is No, no and thrice no.
Paying the current crop and decent wage and making pay and conditions worth having a long career in the DF would be a good start
Then the politicians can get all the erectile dysfunctions they want buying new fancy weapons and toys to brag about at the next brussels sprouts meeting and talking about joining NATO
Increase patrol aircraft and ships for search and rescue as well as to deter drug shipments, and to patrol Irish waters. Increasing number of Infantry and combat arms to fight foreign wars is of no benefit to Ireland. Giving them to Ursula and her teams surrendering our sovereignty.
Any person who says Ireland should fight for foreign lands should be sacrificing THEIR OWN lives and money, not dragging the whole country down with them.
@Beachvibe: how does spending more on defence equate to “Ireland should fight for foreign lands”? Can you explain the process of that? Switzerland and Austria spend 0.79% and 0.87% of GDP respectively on defence. Both neutral in the total sense of the word. But, they have the ability to defend their neutrality. Nowhere in Bunreacht na hEireann is the word “neutral” mentioned so technically no referendum required expand our defence abilities or join an military alliance.
@Barb Dwyre: Spending €50 million funding the war in Ukraine is NOT neutral. Ireland needs to learn the concept of neutral and stop throwing away are hard earned money because of activist wasters who look after everyone except the Irish in Ireland
For the past 2000 years every century has seen major powers engaged in military conflict. Today, in 2025, we had hoped this pattern would be avoided but not so. Emergence of major conflict was inevitable because that is the way of our species.
But today the wrong question is being asked. We should be asking what form the next conflict will take and if we are capable of dealing with it. 200 years ago the determining factor was the number of troops. 100 years ago it was battleships. 70 years ago it was airpower. Today it is electronics, hacking capability and remote warfare through drones.
If we are to spend money, solutions to these areas are essential. Spending €5m renovating officers quarters in a listed building in Cork, as was announced yesterday, is totally the wrong approach.
There’s no reason military spending should be a priority for anyone in a country with constant hospital overcrowding and escalating homelessness.
If the security of undersea cables is really what is keeping you awake at night then you must have a very privileged existence.
Spending probably needs increasing for effectiveness and staff morale, but shouldn’t be a means to an end of ending neutrality or joining NATO. Being part of NATO shouldn’t have to be a determining factor of protection from other nations given the size and location of Ireland.
Defence against who? Spend the money on housing as half the country is living in rented accommodation most likely owned by politicians who make the laws to suit their pockets.
There are too many politicians involved in rental housing so where is there interest in building housing when it will affect their pockets.
Just take a look at how many of our national and local politicians are landlords.
Only on better pay & conditions for troops. We’re a neutral country. Money is better spent on housing, homeless & many many other issues rather than new guns & jeeps.
How can we vote on that when we don’t know, or, not told in the item, how much is actually spent on defence. It’s like voting on a blank ballot paper!!!
@Ollie Fitzpatrick: Try looking it up on ‘where your money goes’ on gov.ie instead of posting that you are not told. Do you really think that the Journal should jog around to your house and brief you because (a) you are too lazy to inform yourself (b) you are incapable of informing yourself or (c) somebody should especially inform you because you are ever so special?
@Pat Farrelly: Go back to your 3 piece jigsaw, dole troll!!
You’re very naive if you say so when, for example, we had Russian submarines approaching Irish waters a few years ago. Thanks to our British buddies, they were deterred.
@Chris: seriously you think we detected russian submarines heading to Irish waters. Have we told NATO of our ability to track russian subs, I’m sure they would be eternally grateful as they’ve been trying to figure a way to track them for decades.
@Chris: Well maybe Ireland should not provoke Russia by getting involved in the war while falsely saying we are neutral. Gov spent another 50 million euro on that war just as the USA retracted 100 million.
If we spend more on defense…. we won’t have any money for more bike sheds….so no! We need more bike sheds!
No. The rest of the world should spend less and look after the health of their citizens and not feed arms industry countless billions. . .
Defence spending won’t make a ounce of difference if someone decides to invades us. A huge cache of weapons for civilians, given out for resistance would be our only effective defence.
@Notty Tee: I hope America invades Ireland. Better than being in the EU.
@Beachvibe: Obviously SF American lick ar5er
@Notty Tee: No they kiss up to Palestine and Arab nations
@Beachvibe: eeew
Other than better wages and conditions for our defence forces I wouldn’t spend more.
The truth is we can’t actually defend the country unless we make massive spending…. which would leave priority spending on health, housing and education without the funding it requires.
Neutrality is our best defence, and in reality, nothing will protect us against nuclear weapons…so increase wages and conditions for the defence forces we have…and put our money to better use in housing and health care
Big Push on now wonder why! are the bomb and gun manufacturer kickbacks to hard to resist for the Government especially after the Munich death merchants war conference
Pay more, better equipment sourced in Europe, better radar and detection. Absolutely No to NATO, full neutrality, tell the Brits to stay outta our airspace.
A big ‘YES’ to this.
Improve conditions and pay for those who are already serving and develop the forces we already have. But the big thing we should focus on is building a navy. We’re an Island nation and its something we should always have done.
Can people not see the scaremongering going on . The lobby groups for arms manufacturers must be licking their lips with the amount of propaganda going on .
We need to defend ourselves against EU policies , corrupt politicians and open
Borders and not fictitious enemies like Russia or china .
Don’t fall for these adverts for the arms industry
@BL Music: The Russians , the Russians are coming . False hysteria . The real invasion being encouraged . I will take Russification over Islamification , thank you .
War is the biggest scam….nearly 99% of them are total grifts. Our neutrality is a blessing!
No. We can let other country to invade us and take our land then let Trump blame us for starting the war and he decides how much land we are giving away to the invaders.
@Bomber: U.K. can take us over. If it would be good for U.K. and USA business what’s not to like about that?
@Bomber: The north of the island was invaded. Will increasing the military get it back?
@Bomber: US can invade us any day that would be great
The overspending on the children’s hospital could have been used to built our own Iron Dome Defense System . Seriously though , we are beside Britain and obviously strategically important to them . Why not have some official defense agreement with them but retain our neutrality. Share military equipment and intelligence for defense purposes only . Joint patrolling of waters , that sort of thing .
@Alan Brennan: The gov spent 1 billion euro on asylum seekers last year.
@Beachvibe: Whom the gods would destroy , they first make mad . Thankfully other Euro nations are regaining their sanity .
@Alan Brennan: I hope we will regain sanity
Get rid of Army and Navy. Move them to Garda and expand remit of Garda. That way soldiers can police the street rather than sitting in barracks
Remember that Michael Martin stated in Dail Éireann that he wants nothing to do with a backwards looking idea of sovereignty when his EU boss Micheal Barnier decided to visit the glorified county council that is on Kildare Street. a billboard quoting Martin outside Army Barricks to show what the political establishment parties think of the efforts in protecting the state. Spending on defense is a joke for over 50 -60 years and can’t defend itself as a world war 2 designed Turbo prop large Russian TU 95 Bear the Air corp cant climb to the height or have the speed to stay with such an old aircraft or the military radar to see whats in Irish airspace or Missile defense capability. proper funded defense capability and neutral countries like Austria,Switzerland both like Ireland non NATO.
We British in Ireland are proud of the Irish Defence Forces, and I am honoured to become an Irish Citizen this year.
Three more jets, two helicopters and a tank. That’s us sorted so!
We should have a plan in place to increase our military spending to the European average within 5 years.
Think of all the wasters between the age of 18 and 25 that would join. Either that or no dole.
Have a plan for an air force that can patrol our skies for the next time Russia decides to pay us a visit.
Ensure our navy is fully manned and armed
We could never expect to repell a invasion because to our size. But if we have a defence’s and the right allies we could put people off it.
It’s a no brainer. We should also investigate getting military defense manufacturers companies in Ireland.
We have said no in the past. More jobs.
We don’t have Rambo.
@Patrick Kavanagh: We wouldn’t need to if you stopped getting Ireland involved in foreign wars
@Beachvibe: so, when was the last time “getting Ireland involved in foreign wars” was, then ?
@John Moylan: When the government just the other day gave €50 million to the Ukraine war after the US retracted €100 million. That is NOT neutrality.
To be an independent sovereign democratic nation, you need to be able to protect yourself and assist your neighbours in need. We can currently do neither. We have dishonored our defence forces for years, since its creation post 1922. We’re starting to go in the correct direction, but not near what we should be spending, investing in our Country.
50mill for a tank or 2 for 100mil
Absolutely not!
We should follow the Costa Rican and Icelandic models and scrap our military force altogether. We have no real need for it. No matter how much resources we would pour into it we will never have a force capable of deterring a larger and determined foreign aggressor. We are not going to be waging a war of foreign aggression (or, should not) so we do not need a military equipped with weapons of destruction.
Instead we should opt for a well armed, well resourced aid to the civil power and protector of domestic security. Much more fit for purpose, much more effective and efficient and much more suitable. And, far, far better value for money.
Think along the lines of the Spanish Guardia Civil, the French Gendarmerie, the Italian Carabinieri and so on.
That is much more suited to our needs. OK, it does not fit in with the push to abandon neutrality and join NATO, but then that is a good thing and another reason to abandon any notions of Ireland as a military power.
Be sensible.
Yes, but I would be buying arms from China rather than the USA
@Argus Romsworth: yes and we should get our uniforms from Hamas. They have thousands of brand spanking new, never used, uniforms. Our lads might have to bulk up a bit to fit in them though, those Hamas guys seemed well fed!
@Argus Romsworth: Only if the arms are manufactured by children who work 16 hours a day
Only if they work. They can patrol our lawless streets so the guards can relax.
The defence forces should get better pay and equipment and a better environment to work in so instead of spending taxpayers money on Ukraines and asylum seekers put it into defence forces
Yes for the benefit of the country, protect our waters, border and air space absolutely.
No. Bring up some perennial, timeless issue that we could spend money instead. We don’t understand departmental budgets and we can’t hold more than one issue in our heads at any one time.
No use saying we’re neutral unless we can defend that position. At the moment, we can’t.
@Joe Bergin: We are giving millions to fund a foreign war. Neutral? Nope
It’s time that Ireland increased its military spending to 2% of our GDP and joined NATO. Nothing is more irresponsible than a nation refusing to defend itself while relying on the goodwill of others to protect it. Yet, this has been Ireland’s policy for decades. Irish politicians love to talk about “neutrality,” as if simply declaring neutrality will make enemies respect it. Ask Ukraine how much neutrality mattered when Russia invaded. Ireland currently spends less than 0.3% of GDP on defence. We have an air force with no fighter jets, a navy that can’t patrol its own waters and an army smaller than many police forces. The Irish Sea is NATO’s back door, and yet Ireland provides zero protection for it. Ireland benefits from NATO’s protection without contributing. That’s called freeloading.
Yes, expecting the UK to help and send planes over is embarrassing . Ireland needs to grow up
@Hector turtlehead: It’s not embarrassing , it’s payback . Colonialism , the famine , stealing Grealish and Rice from us .
Yes buy more pepper spray
Tell Trump on Paddy’s Day that we want to be the 51st state.
Then, all the loonies with guns will defend us, and the 10 million illegals in the USA will be sorted.
FF and FG will become republicans. The kerry boys will work with Musk.
@Unknown Unknown: I would welcome his invasion of Ireland any day
Once there’s still enough money left for the dole
@Dixie: They spent 1billion euro on asylum seeking wasters last year and now 50 million funding a foreign war
Some on here like to give out about the British yet we rely on them for protection which is more than a little embarrassing.
Yes but expenditure needs to be tightly focused on the following areas: cyber security, navy/coastguard for illegal fishing/drug smuggling/underwater cables protection and also extra pay for defence personnel. More importantly keep on promoting strong diplomacy around the world and show the world that there is more than one way to resolve a conflict and it doesn’t have to be a constant need to ‘arm up’. In reality, our military hardware would be wiped out in a day or two if a superpower attacked regardless of level of defence expenditure. The art of fair negotiation (which Trump clearly knows nothing about) is something that Ireland can continue to do successfully to highlight both its neutrality and it’s role as an honest broker. The arms industry can look for their profits elsewhere.
Yes for sure. But no unions. Simple.
Spend huge amounts on bus shelter, security hut, so I’d imagine
the fence will be costly as well
#bringharryhome
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