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

I appreciate that progress has been made on all of these matters as against the last Administration and previous Administrations. That is unquestionably the case, but we must still acknowledge that there is a big problem when, in this case, we have €5 million in travel and accommodation expenses being paid out. I am not making a judgment on the integrity of any Member in the use of these moneys. The problem resides with the fact that it is not vouched, and that causes a problem not just for the system and the taxpayer but for the Members because to safeguard all of us, surely the smart thing to do would be to have a system where we can all verify, in concrete terms, how much we received and on precisely what we spent it. That seems to be good common sense. I take it from Mr. Coughlan's head movement that he agrees.