Dear Editor,
Do you know what the Ciste Pinsean Thithe an Oireachtas fund that was passed through in the Dail last week on the QT did? The TDs' salaries and expenses were allocated a budget of €112,983.00 for the year but it over-ran by over €13million!
Now if health overruns, there is cutbacks in staff, beds and operations. If education over-runs its budget, SNAs are reduced and teachers are let go. If social welfare over-runs its budget, the government cuts household welfare packages for OAPs etc.
But when the TDs over-run their budget they don't reduce numbers, they don't have cutbacks! They just pass a estimate bill called Ciste Pinsean Thithe an Oireachtas the week of the Presidential election and the week a referendum looking for more powers for the Oireachtas is put before the public, and they allocate themselves the extra €13million! - no questions asked - to cover their own salaries and expenses overruns!
That's more than twice what their own budget had agreed. Austerity for "Paddy" unless you're in the Dail of course.
Yours sincerely,
Murty Brennan
Kilkenny city
