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

It would have been useful to have that noted in the document.

I will now focus on the cost of the committees. One must take account of the additional allowance for the chairperson, payments to the Seanad Select Committee on members' interests and to the commission. That comes to a startling figure of €266,500 per annum. Is that calculation correct? The reason I am raising the figures is to show the total amount of money paid out when one tots up all the figures. One may view the figures in a table of expenditure as theoretical but when one adds up the figures, one sees the cost of the service.