Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I understand I have 20 minutes and I will try to stay within this time. I am glad Mr. Coughlan acknowledged in his statement that €31.7 million, which is the sum for salaries and allowances, is substantial. He is right to acknowledge this.

I take issue with Mr. Coughlan when he says the system for accounting for this money is robust. He used that term a couple of times.

I would like to explore a couple of issues with him. Why is there still the phenomenon of unvouched expenses and allowances in the system? I will give two examples. The first relates to the public representation allowance. A Deputy can either claim vouched expenses of €25,700 or unvouched expenses of €15,000. I do not see the logic of that. There is a big disparity between the vouched and unvouched options. The bigger issue is how one can claim the system is robust when there is an unvouched system such as that.