THE OIREACHTAS spent more than €9,600 of taxpayers’ money on more than 200,000 customised Christmas cards that were distributed by TDs and Senators ahead of the recent festive season.
One of the perks Oireachtas members enjoy is the ability to avail of an “in-house” printing service allowing them to produce individualised cards they can send to constituents and others.
With well over half of TDs and Senators using the service, it appears that, in the age of Twitter and text messaging, old-fashioned Christmas cards remain attractive to politicians – despite the controversies they have given rise to in the past. An Oireachtas spokeswoman confirmed that 132 of the full 226 members of both houses had cards printed in-house, with a total of 217,020 cards produced at the end of last year.
A breakdown of the total spend of €9,621.90 revealed that the bulk of the money went on “paper costs”, which accounted for €7,165.90. Printing “plate costs” accounted for €2,376 while €80 was spent on “ink/chemistry”. The spokeswoman said the average spend per card was 0.044 cent. The Independent TD for Waterford John Halligan was one of the deputies who availed of the in-house printing service.
He was invited on to the John Murray Showon RTÉ Radio One yesterday to discuss his unusual cards, which featured an "extraterrestrial theme".
The card featured a glow of light with an alien's finger touching a human finger, similar to the scene in the popular film ET.
Mr Halligan said he sent out 800 of the “oddball” cards in December.
“It’s an unusual Christmas card. It stands out on the mantelpiece from the Santas and the Nativities and so on,” he said. Asked if he paid for them himself, Mr Halligan said: “I’m going to be honest. I don’t tell a lie. You can get cards printed in the Dáil.” He said he paid “for the taking down the – whatever you call it – the images and so on”. He said last night he had sent a “couple of hundred” cards using Oireachtas envelopes but bore the cost of the cards he sent abroad.
Other TDs and Senators chose to send out cards with more traditional designs, with Labour Party TD Derek Nolan, who represents Galway West, distributing a card with an attractive seasonal image of Menlo Castle in Galway, taken on a frosty day. The photograph was taken by local photographer Tommy Tyrell.
People living in the Dublin Central constituency complained about receiving multiple cards in prepaid Oireachtas envelopes from former taoiseach Bertie Ahern in 2009. In 2004, former senator Ivor Callely’s card featured a photograph of the then junior transport minister and his family posing at the Fry Model Railway Museum in Malahide.
