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AS OF 10 March, 20 TDs and 13 Senators had not cleared their Dáil bar tab amounting to €4,010.
Figures released to Ciarán D’Arcy of The Irish Times under the Freedom of Information Act and published on the front page this morning, reveal that on the day the 31st Dáil was dissolved, there was an outstanding bar tab of €5,405 owed to the Oireachtas.
Over the course of a month, over €1,000 was paid off the outstanding bill.
The largest single outstanding bar bill as of 10 March 2016 is €802. A total of €310 of the total amount was money owed prior to the formation of the last government.
The Houses of the Oireachtas noted that it is not clear if this amount is in fact owed and may be still outstanding due to an accounting error in 2008 when moving to a new accounting system.
Late nights at the bar
There has been criticism in the past about politicians not settling up. TheJournal.ie reported that at the end of August 2014, a total of €11,715 was owed to the bar facilities in the Houses of the Oireachtas, a sharp fall from the €72,000 that was owed at the end of 2012 – the last available figures.
The Dáil bar has come under renewed scrutiny in recent times after a number of controversial late-night sittings.
In 2013, a bar bill of nearly €7,000 was run-up during a late-night sitting to pass the abortion legislation – an evening which became know as ‘lapgate’.
Last year, the busiest night of the year for the Dáil bar was the day the Water Services Bill was debated, when the bar made €7,461.19.
If you’re curious about what price politicians and their visitors are paying for booze and food in the Dáil bar, the updated prices have also been released.
Price list
A pint of Guinness in the Dáil bar will cost you €4.40, as will a pint of Smithwicks. Long necks like Budweiser and Miller will set you back €5.00, while a measure of gin, rum or vodka costs €4.50.
The cheapest bottle of red and white wine costs €20, while the Chateauneneuf-du-Pape Domaine Duclaux costs €50.
The soup of the day costs a mere €2.50, while a toasted BLT costs €6.50. A homemade 8oz beef burger with chips will set you back €8.00.
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You will also need to make sure trump doesn’t get elected and abolish j1 as promised
I hope trump get elected much more interesting than the present one . Also how would you like Americans telling you who to vote for .Dream on the J1 will not be abolished . The Democrates want and need Hispanics voters so the rest of the world can get lost .
I never told any American who they should vote for. Trump is not your typical politician, not sure if he is one for u turns but abolishing J1 is a promise of his. The democrats are actually grand with Hispanics nothing to do with votes just expressing their humanity and respect for American values. I support Bernie Sanders, not my place to tell any Americans who to vote for but one is allowed take interested in foreign elections
You just have to wonder why we send our politicians on junkets to the U.S. each St Patrick’s day. They are only over there striking deals for DOB and the like.
In the end its always a choice between a Turd Sandwich and a Giant Douche.
meanwhile students from Asia, Africa, South America can flood into Ireland, have full access to all our jobs, healthcare and other resources, skive off, work in the black economy, increase competition for scarce jobs and work, become illegals, claim asylum, get waivers to stay here permanently, or through the legal route simply get their study visas renewed, then offered a job here after college then they get to stay.
Ireland – brilliant country if your not Irish, or as the open-borders extremists say….”Ireland for all” (except the Irish)
Vote Left Ireland Tell me “You will also need to make sure trump doesn’t get elected” what does that mean then or whom is it aimed at . ” The democrats are actually grand with Hispanics” for votes only . You support saunders so you will be voting for him then . He has no chance just like Corbyn .
Ireland should sort out the
If a foreigner arrives in Ireland with little to no English ,gets a job, pay rent ( without relying on rent allowance) ;learn the language,gets a better job, improve their qualifications ,again gets a job on that field,date an Irish person, and decide to build a life with that person (marriage/kids) .Why an Irish person cannot do the same? Oh wait, because I’m Irish and I’m too good to do X,Y job , I wont get a education, because I can rely on the system for house and my weekly money and of course is easier to blame the immigrants & society , than work my ass off to succeed in life. Yeah right , better to blame the environment than do something myself to change the sh*t life I leave in.
Common sense really.
Most of these students spend the summer in the States dossing anyway, phoning mummy and daddy back home to send them more cash when they’re running low.
How do you know this?? I thought it was supposed to be a secret
Shhuut uuuup!
More to do with students on J1s getting illegal, cash under the table type jobs.
Nothing wrong with spending mammy and daddys money over there if they can afford it.
Lol at the red thumbs. Typical Irish. Don’t want to work, but love free money
Likely the ones that got a job and worked are the ones red thumbing.
Or more likely the ones who just want to wing it and hope they get a job. It makes no sense to fly half way around the world without employment secured. Genuine question… What happens to the people who can’t find a job, and their parents can’t send then money for whatever reason?
Anyone who thinks the J1 programe is nothing but a glorified summer pi$$ up for rich kids is deluded.
I lived in NY, in a neighbourhood that had / has LOADS of J1ers. No, the majority weren’t depending on Mammy and Daddy. They were living 6 to an apartment and working AND having a great time. They were also contributing to the local economy. But they need to BE there to go job hunting. If anything they’ve just made it really hard for poorer students.
For the record… i didn’t mean to tell anyone to shut up… was just goin’ for a Simpsons gag
My Bro worked and lived in Queens for 3 months. My mam & dad (not mammy & daddy) struggle like any other squeezed working family.
Going to America for the summer and finding out how hard it is to find a job in the real world was far more educational to me, as a student, than any job I did get.
Tommy – yup, just a scheme to benefit all the future Ross O’Carroll Kellys and Sorchas…
These are probably the reasons that the changes are being made?
Plus, the non native English speakers are at most risk of exploitation
http://cis.org/cheap-labor-as-cultural-exchange-1
http://labornotes.org/2011/08/hershey%E2%80%99s-walkout-exposes-j-1-guestworker-scam
That’s me fkuded so. Was hoping to go next year as a mature student studying tity bars
Why should irish students be exempt?
Cos, sure, we only want to have the craic, and, sure, America loves us
Bescause
Because over the last few decades, Ireland has fostered a sense of entitlement which is completely engrained in our lives. Sad really
Don’t you know that we’re special, and every year are grovelling leader whoever that may be, gets the priviledge of presenting a cereal bowl of shamrock to the leader of the free world. We’re so special that our politicians believe our citizens who are living illegally in the US and broke their immigration laws are entitiled to special treatment and shouldn’t be deported like the Mexicans or anyone else.
We’re just a special people.
I agree if students from other countries have to secure employment first why should Ireland be exempt ?
That said Cereal Bowl of Shamrock gets destroyed when the photo session ends
Indeed Sertorius,
“We’re so special that our politicians believe our citizens who are living illegally in the US and broke their immigration laws are entitiled to special treatment and shouldn’t be deported like the Mexicans or anyone else.”
Yet people will here would criticise African politicians for doing the same thing at the summit in Malta currently underway.
Best thing that could happen would be for our human cattle export routes to America, Britain and Australia to severely restricted or closed down. Then out useless political system would finally be forced to reform and change the way this country is run, rather than running the currently failed state with it’s emmigrant pressure release valve.
You’re damn right we’re special. We come from a white Christian country that speaks English and has close cultural and historical links with the USA.
If there ever was a reason for a special relationship with a foreign country it would be based on that criteria.
Maybe Ireland should use this as an opportunity to set up their own equivalent programme?
Designate Donegal a “J1 visa” area and all the students who would have gone to the States can spend a Summer in one of Ireland’s most beautiful areas. They could even be paid in dollars to simulate the American experience.
The only thing America and Donegal have in common is doughnuts. …
We can have our own Las Vegas in the hills of Donegal?
Shite.
In that case should Ireland not revoke or place similar restrictions on Americans coming here on a WHV? They’re offered a one year visa here, unrestricted allowing them to work anywhere, they just about gave our students 3 months and now they’re clearly trying to make it as difficult as possible for them to obtain a J1, some kind of response is needed here…
No sure let them come over here and spend their money. No point in cutting your VAT off to spite your Yanks
Anyway I doubt there are hordes of American youth wanted to come to some damp dreary dismal little rock in the middle of nowhere that’s poorer than even their worst states such as Mississippi or Alabama.
I can’t recall ever meeting an American tourist here who’s had a bad word to say about Ireland. They come here in droves and their numbers show no sign of dropping, but if being a begrudging cynic gets you through your day then go on ahead.
Students are just going to get a normal holiday visa. Not going to make a difference if they want to go!
don’t have too much of a problem with it as many students seem to have a job before starting the j1 these days. I didn’t have one lined up when I went, but the internet was only but a pup back then
presumably Ireland will introduce the same rules for US students coming to work here of course. tis only fair after all
Americans students can’t go to Ireland and work as theres no equivalent to the J1 in Ireland. They can get a non-paid internship but thats it.
I didn’t have one when I went either but there was 15 of us living in the house. We all done the same amount of searching and those with no j1 visa where the only ones that got jobs that year. I didn’t beg for money to be sent to me more. Money lasted 8 weeks and I came home. So there is some people going out there trying to do it on their own. Yes you will have those putting their hands out every second week. But these where the ones that was handed everything growing up. Not having to work for your pocket money at the end of the week.
Stupid decision.
It’s not my job to look for a job.
In theory it would be good to have employment before you head over and some do but in reality……what bar owner is gonna hire someone they have never met and most likely a few months before they actually start?
My son was on a j1 this year and I discovered he had huge arms , because every week I caught him with his hands in my pocket and I was here ion Dublin. He pick pocketed 1.400 and when I asked him when he got back how much he thinks he got off me he said ” couple of hundred da ” I give up !
You were worse to give it to him!
Ya think.
Rather give it than have him struggle. Which he and others did because rent was high and wages were low.
Don’t f*ck it up, kids!
The J1 system is a joke what is the purpose of it only for people finished college to go on the piss for the summer in a different country. Pointless!
People need money to go on the piss and pay rent so the majority also have the experience of working abroad.
I fail to see how that’s such a bad thing,
And I say that as someone that never did the J1 but I can see the value of it.
Living abroad is a really steep learning curve and being able to do it with the support of the J1 Visa program is better than just throwing people into the deep end.
bank of mammy and daddy fund these trips tricia. I agree with what your saying about life experience though most of the students I lived with didnt know how to boil an egg or operate a washing machine. Important life lessons!
Irish people want to go America and America likes tourism, in principles is a very mutually beneficial proposal
No, the bank of Mammy and Daddy don’t fund the majority of these trips.
I lived in a neighbourhood in NY that was mecca for J1′s and most of them worked, slept on mattresses in overcrowded apartments and, at the same time, had mental craic.
The number of times I’d have been in the bar or coffee shop and they’d be in looking for jobs or already working there. Then I’d meet them out in the local bars spending their cash and supporting the local businesses.
It’s really disingenuous of you to say that most are covered by their parents because, in the six years I was there, that’s not the reality I experienced. And it’s hard to find a job in a city you’ve zero experience of BEFORE you ever even get there. Unless of course Mammy and Daddy have connections that can get them a job before leaving Ireland.
So basically they’re making it harder for lower class students to experience living abroad because they’re the ones that don’t have those connections.
Read comments above tricia about parents paying for these trips, also the heading of this article is a bit of a give away.. How did students who didn’t have to work pay for it? I dont know many students that would have 15 k lying around after paying for college to go on the piss for the summer
Paddy, I’ve told you my experience. I’ve made it clear that what you’re saying is not what I have actually witnessed. You can choose to believe what you choose to believe.
I didn’t say all, I saif majority.
I know there are students that have their travels covered for them. So of course there are examples out there.
And 15k!? Where did you pluck that figure from? Most of these students WORK!
15k 3 months of drinking, eating rent ,bills..rent in america is fairly high. A better experience for students leaving college would be to get a job , move out of home and pay some bills.You dont have to leave the country to learn how to stand on your own two feet! This culture of students going on holidays after the leaving cert and heading off on j1s is a bit of a farce, taking a well deserved break after not doing any work!
There’s more to life than work, Paddy.
The same happen here Tricia, most of the students that comes to study English , they came with a sum of money and is allowed to work 20 hours per week , most of the time works in pub,as cleaners on hotel ,nanny ,in jobs that only help you get by but for the fact we are here to learn the language , going back home with English on the CV,in our point of view is worth it . Besides , the money we make , depending on the job ,pay tax, rent ,spend the money on the economy so I find just unfair when I hear Irish people saying foreign immigrants who comes to Ireland to study, they aren’t helping with anything ; the curse are quite expensive ,between 1500 to 2 grand for 6 months studying and holidays afterwards.
Sorry,I got carried away.
Economic migrants, with an entitlement complex, going over there taking jobs from the Americans. They terk er jerbs!!
Do blow-JOBS count? I can arrange before you “head” over…
Thank you, thank you – I’m here all week!
J1 Students can only stay in the US for 30 days without a job, otherwise they have to leave as the rules are now. They can’t just go there on the J1 and not work. They also work hard and long hours for very low wages.
Cash that goes into the American economy
Charlie Flanagan says no….
As voters will say no to Charlie Flanagan next spring
Time to read the article before going straight to comment.
It’s the U.S. Authorities that are saying this, the Irish Gov are trying to get an exemption for the Irish students.
I know he tried, I wouldn’t vote for Flanagan regardless
Don’t worry. http://www.allenbwest.com/2015/08/what-look-what-californias-letting-illegal-immigrants-do-now/
Well minister, you know what you can do with your J1′s then
I don’t think you got this Flanagan is trying to stop this requirement for having a job.
And failing by the looks of things
I’d take no notice of it, its just these far left types see red any time they see any mention of any member of the current government at all, and feel the need to add some negative comment, even if it has nothing to do with the subject matter whatsoever, Niall’s post above here is a case in point.
Far left? Only?
Far? I mean left ok but far? How far?
How about ireland stop US war planes landing and refilling in Shannon??
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