Politicians spend lavishly on PR material ... at taxpayers’ expense

Taxpayers funded €165,000 worth of cards, calendars and newsletters for TDs and Ministers this year, new figures reveal.

The items were printed free of charge for them by the Oireachtas printing service.

Fine Gael was the top spending party – racking up €55,228 worth of printing requests in 2021, ahead of Fianna Fáil with €33,122. Sinn Féin put in orders worth €30,188 while the Green Party placed printing requests worth €14,147.

The biggest user of the free printer in the Dáil was Fine Gael TD Alan Farrell who put in requests totalling €6,724. This included requests for more than 230,000 printed newsletters overall. Fine Gael TD Neale Richmond was in second place with printing requests worth €6,059.

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In third place is Labour TD Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, whose requests cost €4,593. Fine Gael TD Josepha Madigan placed orders with the printing service worth €4,438, the figures show, while Fine Gael Minister of State Colm Brophy placed orders were worth €4,328.

The TDs who spent the least on the printing service were Fianna Fáil’s Seán Haughey, with a bill of €27, Fine Gael’s Charlie Flanagan at €29, Independent Catherine Connolly whose orders came in at €46, Independent Verona Murphy with €55 and Fine Gael’s Joe McHugh at €59.

The figures also reveal how some 14 TDs and Ministers spent nearly €900 printing Christmas cards.

Fine Gael TD Paul Kehoe placed orders for 2,000 cards which would cost just over €100. Kerry Independent TD Danny Healy Rae printed 1,500 cards at a cost of more than €85, as did Sinn Féin TD Chris Andrews and Fine Gael’s Brendan Griffin.

Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris placed an order for 1,000 cards at a cost of just under €70, while Tánaiste Leo Varadkar ordered 500 cards at a cost of €50.

Minister for Justice Helen McEntee placed an order for some 1,000 cards which would have cost nearly €70.

Fine Gael TD Alan Dillon ordered 1,000 cards at a cost of €65, the information shows.

The figures were released under the Freedom of Information Act.