Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

These are the people who talk about austerity, household charges, VAT and so on, yet they have no problem taking this unvouched payment into their hands. If we are to have political accountability, we should start with that.

Another anomaly that has arisen is that we have a party in the Dáil, which claims to be an all-island party, which has six Members of a foreign parliament who never sit in that parliament. However, they receive, on average, £180,000 a year for those Members despite the fact they never take their seat. It is a great situation that people who do not turn up to work and do not represent the people who elected them draw these huge sums of money. Then, their colleagues come in and pontificate here about what the Government should be doing.

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