Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Let us do the maths on it. Let us suppose somebody pays €15,000 a year for an apartment in Dublin and they get another €4,500 in expenses, rounding up the figure to €20,00, he or she will get tax relief of 41% on that, which is north of €8,000 of a rebate. How much does the Deputy get in overnight allowances? I should not personalise the question, but how much does a Deputy, claiming full overnight allowances, get? If the Deputy does the maths, he will see that rather than gaining, officeholders lose dramatically in this regard. It has reached the point that Ministers of State were financially better off as Members. They are taking the promotion for career reasons but are very conscious they are losing out substantially in financial terms.