Cllr Anthony Kelly has expressed outrage at the amount of expenses paid to Wexford’s five sitting oireachtas members over the past year. Cllr. Kelly said that the €823,160 paid out to these people in expenses was the equivalent of throwing the families post office savings book down the toilet.“What precisely gave these men the right to claim such lavish expenses,” Cllr Kelly asked, “In the past year Wexford has lost a rail line and vitally needed hospital beds. We are in the process of losing our full time psychiatric unit, our special needs assistants in our schools, and god only knows what the future holds for Wexford General Hospital now that health funding is cut.”
“That’s not to mention the thousands of Wexford people who have lost their jobs, those who have been forced to emigrate or those vulnerable citizens who have recently had their benefits slashed. They even found time to cut the minimum wage but still they have the nerve to claim these expenses.”
Cllr Kelly said that he would be claiming nothing of the sort if elected to Leinster House in the coming election, and promised that he would campaign for the cutting of Dail wages. “Sinn Féin was the first party to call for cuts to TDs salaries, and a restrictive use of expenses. We have consistently called for the abolishment of the Seanad, which cost the tax payer €344,364 for Wexfords three senators alone last year.”
“We welcome Labour jumping on this bandwagon now, but fear that their coalition with Fine Gael will prevent them from bringing forth any true reform in this area.” Cllr Kelly reiterated his party’s position, stating that Sinn Féin would not enter government without these reforms and the necessity of job creation being put at the top of the agenda.
