PROVIDING secretaries for the country's TDs and senators costs an average of €86,000 per politician per year, it has emerged.

The bill to hire staff to answer phones, open letters and carry out other administrative duties has now spiralled to €19.5m a year.

A significant portion of the bill for the so-called Scheme for Secretarial Assistance is made up of overtime, though the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission has declined to say how much.

A major review of the cost of the secretarial service is now underway with the overtime budget first in line to be cut, the Sunday Tribune has learned.

A recent meeting of the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission said savings must be achieved on the bill in light of the current economic circumstances.

A note from the minutes said: "In the context of achieving savings in all areas of public expenditure, the commission authorised the service to enter into negotiations with the staff employed under the scheme to explore the possible options for reducing the staffing costs."

The commission said the staff involved were directly employed by the individual TDs and the political parties.

Those employed under the scheme have at least been spared the possibility of other pay cuts.

More than 130 of the parliamentary assistants avoided controversial public-sector cuts of around 7% introduced in last December's budget. They were also exempted from the pension levy.

They took advantage of the loophole where they are directly employed by the relevant politician and are thus not considered a public servant.

However, their jobs are not guaranteed and the position is usually lost if the TD or senator resigns or loses their seat.