Nine months ago, I wrote a story about Sinn Féin and the average wage. In brief, Sinn Féin say their TDs and senators are paid only the average wage, and hand over the rest to the party.
Which is fine, except for a few things.
One, there are legal limits on how much can be donated to a political party.
Two, the political contributions regulator, SIPO, is unaware of any Sinn Féin contributions above the legal limit, though SIPO point out they have no jurisdiction over money TDs may donate to the party in Northern Ireland.
Three, Sinn Féin claim moral high ground over the donations. The party twitter account presents this arrangement as a contribution to easing the burden on the exchequer. In fact, how Sinn Féin members choose to spend their money doesn’t alter by one cent the cost to the taxpayer.
So I have some questions.
How does Sinn Féin calculate the “average wage?”
Are TDs and senators paid the average wage before or after tax?
Are they paying for their own digs, phone bills and mileage, or is this paid out of the expenses they are claiming?
And finally, where exactly does this money end up?
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Niall McClave (@monaghanpenguin)
September 18, 2011 at 12:31 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Sinn Fein:vThe average wage question – http://t.co/h8KAEIQ3
Gerard Cunningham (@faduda)
September 18, 2011 at 11:06 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
@quiatimet What Oireachtas members are doing is unclear, but I’ve never heard it said that they were handing it back http://t.co/6hH31tJv
Ciarán Mc Mahon (@CJAMcMahon)
September 19, 2011 at 9:47 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
@kencurtin hope you have seen this and will give it some RT’ing
http://t.co/CXKP5T7i
Ciarán Mc Mahon (@CJAMcMahon)
September 19, 2011 at 9:49 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
In light of @faduda’s exposé of SF’s wage dodginess (http://t.co/CXKP5T7i) surely Joe Higgins has a few questions to answer too?
Don Speekingleesh (@DonSpeek)
September 20, 2011 at 12:46 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Shared: The average wage question http://t.co/efl3GziI
Conor Lalor (@conorlalor)
September 20, 2011 at 12:46 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Shared: The average wage question http://t.co/LEVUp6Wl
Gerard Cunningham (@faduda)
September 20, 2011 at 2:58 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
.@sinnfeinireland Coldn’t DM for some reason. This is the question http://t.co/6hH31tJv Also see email sent to SF Press Office yesterday
Gerard Cunningham (@faduda) (@faduda)
September 24, 2011 at 1:14 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
For the record: Still no response from Sinn Féin to the average wage question http://t.co/6hH31tJv Maybe they’re hoping it’ll go away
Dermot Looney (@dlooney)
September 24, 2011 at 2:22 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
V interesting RT @faduda For the record: Still no response from Sinn Féin to the average wage question http://t.co/iyXr2N3K …
Gerard Cunningham (@faduda) (@faduda)
September 24, 2011 at 7:46 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
@davidcullinane What does constituency service mean? Office rental, workers, laptops? Where do Oireachtas expenses go? http://t.co/6hH31tJv
Gerard Cunningham (@faduda) (@faduda)
October 2, 2011 at 10:49 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
@AllanCavanagh I’ve made that point http://t.co/6hH31tJv
Gerard Cunningham (@faduda) (@faduda) (@faduda)
January 17, 2012 at 12:18 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
@PaulDuggan_ http://t.co/vKqKr1Sd
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