MPs’ business costs

Dáire Hughes

IPSA paid £165,350 against 82 published rows for Dáire Hughes between 2024-25 and 2025-26 as the member for Newry and Armagh CC. These are the costs of running an office and employing staff under IPSA’s rules. They are not salary, and the largest part of them is wages IPSA pays to the member’s employees rather than money the member receives.

By category, 2025-26

23 claims, £12,361 paid. The headings are IPSA’s own categories grouped; the categories inside each are named on the register page.

Category	What it covers	Claims	Paid	Share
Office costs	Renting and running a constituency office: rent, utilities, equipment, stationery and postage.	21	£11,523	93.2%
Accommodation	The cost of somewhere to stay for an MP whose constituency is far enough from Westminster that IPSA's rules allow it. An MP representing a London seat is not eligible on the same terms.	2	£838	6.8%

Every year in the register

Dáire Hughes’s own years, not the register’s: the first is 2024-25 and the last is 2025-26. Figures are not adjusted for inflation, so a rise between two distant years is partly a rise in prices. Select a year to read it on its own.

Year	Claims	Staffing	Office costs	Accommodation	Travel	Total
2024-25	59	£124,140	£23,668	—	£5,181	£152,989
2025-26	23	—	£11,523	£838	—	£12,361

A year in which Dáire Hughes joined or left the House part-way through is a part year, and is not comparable with a full one.

What each category is made of, 2025-26

The cost types IPSA records inside each heading, largest first by what it paid.

Office costs

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Business rates	1	£5,383
Landline phone & internet - rental & usage	10	£2,003
Equipment - purchase	2	£1,485
Utilities	4	£1,471
Insurance - buildings	1	£525
Training - staff	1	£439

Accommodation

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Hotel - London	2	£838

Largest claims, 2025-26

The 15 rows IPSA paid most against, with IPSA’s own description of each. Read the description before the amount: IPSA publishes most of a member’s staffing as one row for the whole year — “Total Staffing budget payroll costs for the ⟨year⟩ year” — so the largest row here is usually a year of wages for the member’s employees and not something bought.

Date	Category	Cost type	Description	Claimed	Paid
1 April 2025	Office Costs	Business rates	LPS Rates	£5,383	£5,383
21 March 2025	Office Costs	Equipment - purchase	Other office equipment	£1,397	£1,397
16 May 2025	Office Costs	Utilities	Dual Fuel	£817	£817
1 May 2025	Office Costs	Landline phone & internet - rental & usage	Landline & internet package	£742	£742
15 September 2025	Office Costs	Insurance - buildings	Office Insurance Invoice	£525	£525
13 November 2025	Accommodation	Hotel - London	[*][][**]	£440	£440
22 April 2025	Office Costs	Training - staff	Parli Training 2025	£439	£439
14 October 2025	Accommodation	Hotel - London	[*][][**]	£398	£398
6 May 2025	Office Costs	Utilities	Water	£282	£282
27 August 2025	Office Costs	Utilities	Dual Fuel	£187	£187
18 November 2025	Office Costs	Utilities	Dual Fuel	£185	£185
16 June 2025	Office Costs	Landline phone & internet - rental & usage	Landline & internet package	£182	£182
16 October 2025	Office Costs	Landline phone & internet - rental & usage	Landline & internet package	£146	£146
15 July 2025	Office Costs	Landline phone & internet - rental & usage	Landline & internet package	£144	£144
11 June 2025	Office Costs	Landline phone & internet - rental & usage	Landline & internet package	£143	£143

What this page does not show

Whether any of it was justified. IPSA accepted these claims under its own rules and the register records what was paid, not whether it should have been. A large total is not a finding about the member.

Nor how Dáire Hughes compares with another member. After staffing the largest headings are accommodation and travel, and both are decided mostly by where a constituency is: a member several hundred miles from Westminster is eligible for costs a member with a London seat is not. Two members’ totals are two sets of rules as much as two sets of choices, and the length of service differs too.

It is also not pay. IPSA sets and publishes MPs’ salaries separately and they are not in this register; the staffing figure here is the salaries of the member’s employees.

All MPs’ business costs · Dáire Hughes’s register of interests and votes · Sources