Fianna Fail senator Eugene Murphy told RTE's Claire Byrne this morningthat he had to sleep in his car due to a lack of available hotel rooms in Dublin.
The senator, who lives in Roscommon, said that he has slept in his car on two occasions, pulling in at a filling station in Mullingar because he could not find an available hotel room in Dublin for under €200 per night. He also revealed that there is a "small number" of politicians who are also sleeping in their cars.
He told Claire that he would sleep for a few hours and then wake up at 5.30am or 6am to make his way back to Dublin.
"You would try to shave and change your close. When you get to your office, you'd have a bit of breakfast," he said.
"I can assure you that you don't feel good in the morning after such an event. Even taking a nap in a car for a few hours, you wake up and it's not a great feeling."
Claire then pointed out that Eugene is a senator "on a good salary, a decent salary" and that he gets a €120 overnight rate to stay in a hotel.
He told Claire that on a point of principle, he wouldn't pay over €200 for a night in a hotel.
"To be honest, I wouldn't have tried more expensive hotels," he explained.
Eugene revealed that deals between politicians and hotels for these kinds of overnight stays in Dublin "seems to have gone out the window".
He said: "We have that overnight allowance and we're very lucky to have that but the rollover situation seems to be gone, certainly in the hotels I used to deal with."
He added: "I never slept inside the gates of Leinster House, but I know somebody who did on one occasion. I did think about sleeping in my office on one occasion, but I felt that wouldn't be a proper thing to do.
"You just get into your car and you head when you can't get a hotel. If you get home you get home. If you're just too tired, as I've done on two occasions, you pull in at Mullingar off the by-pass and sleep it out for a few hours.
The senator said however that he didn't want to complain as there are many people in a much worse position.
"We do accept that people are in very difficult housing circumstances out there. Whatever the difficulty and the challenges we have in this, it's very small compared to what other people are suffering. I wouldn't even mention this to the minister or the department. It's up to us to sort this out ourselves.
"I don't think it would look very well to start whinging and complaining."
Claire responded: "You're doing very important work. You can't be sleeping in your car and then going in and voting on legislation and be expected to make reasonable decisions."
A listener suggested that he broaden his search to B&Bs and he said that he is "engaging with B&Bs at the moment.
Another listener later texted in to say that her friend tried to get a room in Dublin on Saturday night and the cheapest one available was €400.
The cheapest hotel room available on Booking.com for tonight, Monday 23, in Dublin is €178.
The cheapest hotel room available on Booking.com for this Saturday night, May 28, is €429.
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