Dear Member

The Irish Mail on Sunday ran two very misleading articles on its front page last Sunday. The Communications Unit issued a factual explanation of the expenditure misrepresented by the MoS to all media Monday and also wrote to its editor, setting-out the many errors in its coverage. This letter has been also been made available to the wider media. Both documents are provided below and may be of interest to you.

Regards

Mark

Mark Mulqueen
Head of Communications
Houses of the Oireachtas
Dublin 2

Tel:  00 353 1 618 4077
Fax: 00 353 1 618 4118

A. Letter to Mail on Sunday Editor and released on-line to the wider media

Sebastian Hamilton 
Editor 
Irish Mail on Sunday

Dear Mr.Hamilton,

Last Sunday you ran a headline on the front page of the Irish Mail on Sunday which you knew was misleading. It said that a ‘Secret Deal Gives TDs €3m A Year Raise’.  I say you must have known this to be misleading because we told your correspondent on the previous Friday that this sum was not a pay rise. In fact, we reminded him that Members of the Oireachtas have received a series of pay cuts over recent years and that there was no question or suggestion of a pay rise. So, why did you choose to publish such a misleading headline? In the current climate, it must come very close to incitement to emblazon a false claim of a pay rise for politicians on the front page of ones newspaper.

You also managed to squeeze in another misleading and scurrilous headline on your front page whereby you stated that Oireachtas Members ‘stole’ €40,000 worth of envelopes. There is no question of these envelopes having been stolen as they would have been issued to Members legitimately during their membership of the Oireachtas. In fact, up to October this year former Members have already returned approximately €118,000 worth of unused prepaid envelopes. So, there has been no question of theft and envelopes are being returned.

I could continue to tell you again of the cut in our spending, the reduction in salaries, the reduction in travel and about other savings made, but to what end? I could also explain again that there was no increase in pay nor any question of such an increase but is there any point?

I could tell you again that the cost of operating our parliament is falling, year-on-year. We have told you this before and yet you choose to ignore these and many other facts for reasons best known to yourself. In fact, is there any point to this letter? Unless you publish it, probably not.

Regards

Mark

Mark Mulqueen 
Head of Communications 
Houses of the Oireachtas 
Dublin 2

B. Correction Statement issued to all media Monday 14th November

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 the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission 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 is called to the date the election is 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 activities were not as active as normal and the amount estimated for 2012 reflects a normal sitting year.