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THE BUSIEST NIGHT for the Dáil bar this year was the first day of the new minority-government convening.
Figures released to TheJournal.ie by the Houses of the Oireachtas under the Freedom of Information, reveals that on 10 March 2016, the Dáil bar generated over €11,738.14.
This was significantly more than in 2014, when the Dáil bar generated over €7,461.19 when the Water Services Bill was debated.
The election of the Taoiseach was the main item on the agenda for the busiest day this year – although as expected, no candidate was voted in as Taoiseach.
There was much fanfare and excitement among TDs new and old in the halls of Leinster House with many of them wearing their Sunday best for the first day of the 32nd Dáil.
Other highlights from that day included the Healy-Rae brothers hoovering up all the publicity – staging an impromptu gig outside the Dáil gates.
This all happened against the backdrop of an anti-water charges protest taking place.
Budget Day on 11 October pulled in the second highest revenue for the Dáil bar this year.
Sales amounted to a total of €6,096.80.
It was a historic day for “new politics” with some questioning if the government could get the Budget over the line.
In the end, Finance Minister Michael Noonan and Paschal Donohoe delivered an increase of €5 in almost all weekly social welfare payments, cuts in the lower USC rates, and an increase in the price of cigarettes, among a few other items.
Cabinet announcements
May 6 of this year pulled in a total of €5,851.oo. This was the day Enda Kenny announced his new Cabinet.
There were some surprises on the day – such as Simon Harris getting Health and the Independent Alliance’s Shane Ross getting Transport.
But there must have been cause for celebration for some to tot up that bar tab.
Senators
Fourth on the list this year was June 8 – when 60 new senators, who make up the 25th Seanad met for the first time in Leinster House and elected their new Cathaoirleach.
Government Chief Whip Regina Doherty also announced the government’s legislative programme, while Brendan Howlin announced the Labour front bench.
So, it was a day of celebration for some.
The day that Fianna Fail TD, Donegal’s Pat ‘The Cope’ Gallagher was elected the new Dáil deputy chairman or Leas Cheann-Comhairle pulled in €4,906.75.
July 6 was also the day the Dáil discussed rural broadband and the Misuse of Drugs (Amendment) Bill 2016, with the Dáil adjourning at 10pm.
Dáil bar revenue
For the period of 1 January 2016 to 30 November 2016, a total of €275,639.06 was spent in the Dáil bar and Visitors Bar in Leinster House.
Earlier this year, it was reported that 33 politicians had yet to pay their Dáil bar bill.
TheJournal.ie can reveal that since the establishment of current minority-led coalition, the balance outstanding to the end of November is €6,224.
The single largest outstanding bill belongs to a senator and comes to €506.60.
Sinn Féin’s Louise O’Reilly who has been vocal in the past about a bar being in Leinster House told TheJournal.ie that she doesn’t understand how TDs think they can work and consume alcohol.
The party’s health spokesperson tweeted during the Finance Bill debate in November about the Dáil bar.
“There had been people who had been drinking,” said O’Reilly.
She said politicians having a drink while the Dáil is sitting is an insult to their constituents.
You’re literally saying to your constituents and to the people who voted for you ‘I’m voting fodder, I don’t know what is going on, I just turn up and hit the button when I’m told to and collect my expenses and I go home’ – and that is wrong in anybody’s book.
There is nothing wrong with being able to get something to eat if you are working till 3 o’clock in the morning, you should be able to get a bowl of soup or a cup of tea. I really honestly, genuinely don’t know how people can expect to do their work and I think that it is somehow acceptable to do your work and drink alcohol at the same time.
She said she was not “po-faced” about it, stating she enjoys a glass of wine.
“I’ve no difficulty with socialising at all and I’ve a good social life, but I just think when you’re in work and when you talk about this people say ‘well what about the staff’ I wouldn’t like to see any of the staff laid off, but we still have a need for tea and coffee and maybe soup and a scone or something and you do get hungry.”
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To think these freeloading pissheads are telling the rest of us that we drink too much… Some example eh !!!!
Why do ye keep voting them in why not sack them at the ballet box and forget party loyalty for once!
I don’t vote for them , it’s the brain dead numptys and creative vote counting that keeps the pissheads in office.
Ballet? Are you making a song and dance of this?
I wish my workplace had a bar with no licencing rules and I could do my job having had a liquid lunch.
if any one of us were drinking in work we’d be sacked .. pathetic it is !
too true suzie.
And legally they can drive home after a skinful.
Can you get sacked from a government jobs? Doesn’t look like it.
They drink on the job. A firing offence in most companies. Do they drive home afterwards, using legislation designed to ensure their personal security, thereby putting the safety of others at risk for no reason other than they like to drink on our time, we being their employers, spending their inflated salaries to render themselves even less fit for office than when they are sober! Time to introduce a compulsory breathalyser test for every TD and Senator immediately prior to each and every vote. Why should we, the paymasters, have to suffer the ongoing insult of these topers considering important legislative matter while having a blood-alcohol level that would render the driver of a motor vehicle liable to arrest and prosecution? It’s intolerable that this situation should prevail and that they are protected from prosecution if they drive home in such a state.
Setting some example eh !!!. To think these pissheads want alcohol behind curtains and restict lower prices.
@Tomás Ó Briain: How do they get home after visiting the dail bar for a few beers. ? They sure as hell aren’t on the dart, luas.
They claim for a taxi
These gangsters want to address problem drinking in Ireland.
Alcohol sales being banned in the Dail bar is an obvious start.
at an average €5 per pint thats nearly 2,400 pints on ONE night enjoyed by 158 TDs..@#cking disgusting. self serving p#icx… the whole lot of them should be thrown out
And these freeloading pissheads are making decisions that affect the rest of us….
@jenni – That works out at over fifteen pints for every single TD. Are you sure you believe that? Think about it for a minute.
ah feck off..can’t. are you a TD? Firstly, it was an average , actually the Dail doesn’t charge €5. And secondly, there may have been more than 158 depuries, but nearly €12k is a disgusting bar bill. Are you a td per chance?
Maybe king pissheads cowen & ahern were there as well.
It’s not just TDs and senators that can drink in the Dáil bar.
Still a crazy amount.
Sorry to tell you that it’s tax free so no 5 euro per pint
@jenni – Why yes, yes I am. A FG one, as it happens. Go on, hit me with your false outrage. Go for it. Both barrels.
“the fourth most busiest”
Ah lads.
Are unpaid bar tabs included?
I love how they don’t even give a toss. They know people will keep voting them back in regardless of what they do.
@The Guru: Ireland, one of the wonders of the world.. and the sheeple will ask for more!
Ah ff/fg,f*****g the state since its foundation. So lads, who’s for a (free) pint…
No right to complain if this is who you voted for. If you’re not happy, you can change it. Otherwise,keep voting for this, lay back, and take it.
So true Gerry, the constant whining yet ff/fg are voted in regardless
Not all of us voted for these clowns & a majority of ppl didn’t even get off their ass & cast their vote…
I’d say thats were the foreplay starts, and then they move into the Dail and scr3w us with their decisions
Did they all pay on the spot, or did they run up tabs (some of them never to be paid, judging by previous experience)?
Piss heads the whole lot of them,
No wonder nothing ever gets done, pure farse……
Wonder did Danny Healy Rae scratch together his thesis on climate change on a peice of bog roll after 10 pints of the nations favourite in the Dail bar?
Subsidised by the tax payer.
Cowed racked up €3000 of that himself….
It generated 11,500 grand,? Really? Bet half of them hungry hoors haven’t paid their bar tab. It’s such an hypocrisy isint it. Government anti drink ads and 11,500 grand spent on gargle. It makes my skin crawl.sickening stuff. There should be NO bar in government buildings.close it down!
There is absolutely no defending drinking on the job and that’s exactly what they are doing. In any other walk of life if you were found drinking on the job you would be fired. These people are electec to try and make things better for the people of the country and they go and consume 0000′s of € worth of alcohol when they are at work, seriously, wtf? I would love to hear their reasons why they feel it is acceptable to consume alcohol while at work.
I’m so outraged and feel so wronged that my head is about to explode. Of course, I believe the headline without question or reservation. This is the Journal we’re talking about, after all, so that’s good enough for me.
Why is The Journal so anti-alcohol?
@Jack Bowden: why do you think that ?
@Jack – It’s not necessarily anti-alcohol, it just likes to stir the shyt and appeal to peoples’ sense of outrage (not hard to do in this day and age, in fairness), in order to get more clicks. Quality journalism.
@Jack Bowden: Can cause strokes, heart attacks and cause the development of cancer?
Homeless???
Just looking at those two morons “gigging” outside the Dail is cringing. It’s like a scene from” The field”.
The Dail bar should not exist how many offices in the Country hold a bar.
Don’t understand why, well let’s put it this way Louise… If I had to listen to the high pitched endless gas bag whining and moaning of you and your fellow SF TDs. I need a stiff drink in my hand.
@Drew – Hear, hear
They are a joke what about old people living in rural Ireland living four five miles from the nearest tavern just go down for two or three drinks meet people and have a chat these arseholes drinking flat out not a care in the world there not worrying about driving home or thinking
about rural Ireland
Do they get the beer at cost price?
What would be the consequences for a Garda Nurse or teacher who came in to their workplace under the influence of alcohol?
What a country
…so we must keep the bar open and drink during work, to ensure the barmen are kept in their job. Some Country, to accept this!
“I only drink on the job to keep the barman employed. If i didn’t he’d lose his job”. Sound reasoning!
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