SINN FÉIN TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh has said he has no plans at present to repay the Oireachtas for €50,000 worth of printer ink cartridges he used in just two years.
Ó Snodaigh, who came under fire after it emerged he had run up the stationery bill between 2007 and 2008, said the Oireachtas had not requested the money back.
He acknowledged that that bill was “probably excessive”, but said it was not a financial payment directly to him. Ó Snodaigh told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland:
The Oireachtas has not yet sought from anybody who accessed cartridges in 2007 and 2008 any further payment. I’ve said all along that if the Oireachtas sought repayment from TDs who availed of the cartridges, I would consider that at that stage.
He insisted that there was “a need for changes in how we fund politics”. Ó Snodaigh has repaid a €3,000 bill arising from exceeding Oireachtas printer cartridge limits, it emerged two weeks ago.
The Dublin South Central TD has said that the cartridge use – which Fianna Fáil’s Thomas Byrne said was five times greater than that for any other TD – was due to the fact that he sent a lot of information leaflets to his constituents.
He said: “Fifty thousand euro is a lot of money. It was probably excessive at that time. The constituency in my area got a lot of information at that time.”
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