Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The answer to Deputy Martin's question is "No". The total running costs of the Seanad have been estimated independently by the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission to be in the region of €20 million per annum. That is based on the 2012 out-turn and includes all direct and apportioned or indirect costs. Direct costs relating to Seanad Members' salaries, expenses and staff costs amount to €8.8 million. Indirect pay and non-pay costs of the supporting sections, that is, the information and communications technology section, the office of the superintendent and the procedural and support sections amount to €9.3 million. There is also the annual cost of approximately €2 million in pensions. The pensions for former Members are paid by the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission under subhead 2.1, grant-in-aid in respect of ciste pinsean Thithe an Oireachais. Clearly, the amount of money involved, between direct and indirect savings, is the only figure that has been put out by an independent entity, that is, the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission. It is based on the commission's figures that the saving of €20 million on the abolition of the Seanad will take place.

Clearly, if the people decide to approve the referendum question and abolish the Seanad - I hope they will - it will mean that from the commencement of the next Government there will be no further Senators elected and therefore the direct costs of that will not apply. Pensions do apply, of course. However, in the case of that becoming a fact and the Seanad being abolished, no more than with the amalgamation and redeployment that has occurred in so many areas of the public service generally, persons currently working in areas associated with the Seanad will be deployed and work elsewhere. These figures stand up. They are the figures set out by the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission and I do not intend to reverse that.

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