A new package of allowances and expenses will be unveiled for ail Deputies TDs and Senators before Christmas. Senior Government sources said last night no figure could be put on the additional sum but each area of expenses and allowances would be examined and, if necessary, improved upon.
The deal, to be announced by the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, is still being worked out and comes as a pre-Christmas surprise for Oireachtas members, who expected their next salary increase on April 1st. The increase in flat salary will be in the region of £600 a year, which will bring the annual remuneration - without expenses - to about £34,500 a year.
Though reports suggest the increased expenses could be worth as much as £10,000 a year for each Oireachtas representative, sources said it was impossible to predict a figure until all the headings have been examined.
TDs from most Dail parties have been lobbying the Minister to allow better expenses but Mr McCreevy has put no proposals on the table. Expenses can vary significantly, depending on a deputy's location.
They are entitled to claim under a range of headings, including constituency telephone allowances, office grants, travel expenses, overnight costs for rural TDs and a daily allowance for Dublin deputies. They argue, however, that many of these reimbursements are inadequate.
Expenses and allowances add considerably to a TD's pay packet, particularly those who travel from the country each week for the three days of Dail sittings. According to the Comptroller and Auditor General's report, this year, TDs shared £3.7 million in expenses. This averaged out at £22,000 per TD but sources could not confirm if this sum included the payment of the salaries of deputies' secretaries.
Last night one Dublin TD said he and his city colleagues were "the poor relations" of rural deputies because they do not receive the travel and overnight expenses paid to country TDs.
"Dublin TDs do badly," he said. "We do not have much insight into the pros and cons of expenses like the country deputies have."
In 1996, the Review Body on Higher Remuneration - commonly known as the Buckley Report - recommended that a salary of £34,500 was appropriate for TDs. This amounted to £138 a year more than the existing salary at the time of the report and angered deputies who had, in a cross-party submission to Buckley, suggested an increase of 30 per cent, 10 times what they were eventually awarded.