Some extra salaries to be paid.
The addition of 14 new TDs off the back of the Electoral Commission recommendation could cost the taxpayer around €3 million.
The basic TD salary is €107,376, excluding additional costs like travel and expenses, which according to the Irish Mirror, could rise to about €200,000 a year.
That means that the addition 14 TDs could cost the taxpayer about €3 million in total for each year.
The addition of the new TDs is due to the increasing population in certain constituencies. There is also set to be four new constituencies added.
In the Electoral Commission’s constituencies review, it recommended that the next Dáil has 174 TDs representing 43 Dáil constituencies, up from the current 160 TDs in 39 constituencies.
The recommendation would see a single TD represent an average of 29,593 people, which is down from the current average of 32,182.
Electoral Commission recommends number of TDs increase by 14
The amount of TDs in Ireland will now at 174, a record number, after the Electoral Commission’s review.
Numbers were reduced from 166 to 158 in 2012 by former Fine Gael TD Phil Hogan, off the back of the economic crash.
There will also be four new constituencies added off the back of the recommendation.
Only seven constituencies will remain entirely unchanged since boundaries were last reviewed: Clare, Cork South West, Donegal, Dublin Central, Kerry, Limerick County and Waterford.
Willie O’Dea spoke in opposition of the move to increase numbers before the Electoral Commission released their recommendations, suggesting that there should be a referendum on the matter.
“I think that the people of Ireland should decide whether we need a further bloated Dáil at a time of a cost of living crisis,” said the Limerick city TD.
“We can’t have a situation where the number of TD’s rises by a dozen or so after every census. The only way we can stop this happening is to hold a referendum to put a cap on the number of TDs.”
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