Minister Ryan is looking after the pennies ...

Seemingly no amount is too small for some ministers to claim. Eamon Ryan recouped €17.60 on August 27, 2007 and €18.28 on April 28, last year because he’d spent more than five hours away from his Dublin office link.

Although Minister Ryan is fully entitled to claim this money, there seems to me to be something deeply wrong with this. Something petty. Something that seems rotten from a Minister in the Green Party who promised "clean politics" and to reform the rotten expenses system.

But maybe I'm being too hard on the Minister. Perhaps he's saving up his pennies for his Sky TV subscription. God knows, he can hardly afford to live on his massive expenses and €190,000 annual salary ...