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TDs' earnings revealed
13.01.12
Donegal to lose TD
before next general election
Report: Inishowen Independent
NEW figures published this week reveal exactly what
our TDs earn.
The figures published in the 'Irish Independent'
show the various salaries the State’s 166 TDs
earned, including Donegal’s six TDs.
In Donegal North East with three TDs, the two
Opposition TDs, Pádraig MacLochlainn and Charlie
McConalogue, earn the basic salary of €92,672.
However, Fine Gael Deputy Joe McHugh earns more in
his role as chairman of the British Irish
Interparliamentary body.
Like the chairman of all committees, Deputy McHugh
receives an extra €9,500 bringing his salary to
€102,172.
Deputy McHugh’s counterpart from the Westminster
parliament, Lord Cope of Berkley, receives no
additional allowance for being co-chair of the body. |
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Donegal North East TDs, from left,
Pádraig MacLochlainn, Charlie McConalogue and Joe
McHugh. |
In Donegal South West
Sinn Fein’s Pearse Doherty earns the basic salary
while independent Thomas Pringle as chair of the
Members' Interests Committee earns €102,172. Deputy
Dinny McGinley, as a junior minister, earns
€130,042.
Those figures are basic salaries, and do not include
the unvouched travel and subsistence expenses to
which TDs are entitled. Donegal-based TDs regularly
draw annual expenses in the region of €50,000.
Meanwhile, the number of TDs in Donegal may well be
reduced from 6 to 5 when the Constituency Commission
reports later this month.
Submissions to the commission closed earlier this
week, with several suggesting that Donegal’s
existing two three-seat constituencies be merged
into a single five-seat one.
Amongst those making submissions was Labour Senator
Jimmy Harte.
Senator Harte said the population of Donegal doesn’t
justify two three-seat constituencies, but if a
single five-seat constituency were to be created
then Ballyshannon electoral area and its 8,000
inhabitants should be transferred to Leitrim as was
the case between 1977-1981 when Donegal was a single
five-seat constituency.
Several submissions from Leitrim-based councillors,
TDs and citizens also suggested that part of south
Donegal could be added to a new Sligo-Leitrim-South
Donegal constituency.
The Commission is scheduled to make its report
before the end of the year and is expected to reduce
the overall number of TDs from 166 to fewer than 160
– although not as low as the 146 proposed by Fine
Gael in its election manifesto.
With Donegal looking likely to lose a TD, the next
general election, which will be held in 2016 at the
latest, promises to be a fierce battle with six
sitting TDs and two Senators all battling for just
five Dáil seats. |
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