A sandwich press, a beige high back chair, a box of staples and minibar Pringles. No, it’s not the conveyor belt on TV’s legendary Generation Game show. These were just some of the items that Northern Ireland MPs claimed for under the parliamentary expenses system.

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And there are more costly taxpayer-funded bills as well, |including London mortgage interest payments and thousands a year for food.

Yesterday was the official “disclosure day” at the House of Commons, when tens of thousands of receipts submitted by MPs were finally published online.

A great deal of the material was already in the public domain due to a leak to The Daily Telegraph earlier this year.

However, the itemised details released yesterday did include many pages of previously undisclosed information on Northern Ireland MPs.

Most attention will focus on how they have used the widely criticised London living allowance — commonly known as the second home allowance.

It covered mortgage interest, rent or hotel costs, as well as food, furniture and household bills.

The newly published details may well add to the rumbling expenses-related controversies in politics here, on such issues as double-jobbing between Westminster and the Assembly, and the payment of allowances to Sinn Fein MPs who boycott Parliament.

The officially released receipts cover a four-year period up to March 2008.

The Commons fought for years against their disclosure, but were eventually defeated by freedom of information campaigners.

That battle may not yet be over. Unlike the data obtained by the Daily Telegraph, the officially |released documents are heavily censored, with addresses, |supplier names and other details blacked out.

Inexplicably, constituency office addresses have also been redacted despite the fact they are public facilities as well as being funded by taxpayers.

Claims made by Northern Ireland MPs included:

Sinn Fein MPs Gerry Adams, Pat Doherty, Michelle Gildernew, Conor Murphy and Martin McGuinness last year each received £1,800 per month in London rental expenses. The five abstentionist MPs share two properties in the city.

Mr McGuinness’s office-running expenses meanwhile included a £19.99 sandwich press.

Ian Paisley claimed the maximum £400 per month for MP food expenses while he was Stormont’s First Minister.

SDLP leader Mark Durkan claimed £39.70 for food in March 2008.

His expenses around this period also included a £22.50 cleaning bill, a £14 laundry bill, £6.40 for “domestic sundries” and £135.50 for a TV licence at the London property he rents.

DUP MP William McCrea was also among those who claimed for a TV licence as well as mortgage interest on a London property he owns.

He also received £400 a month for food over a six month period in 2007, and £250 per month in early 2008.

The Commons paid £3,215 in hotels bills for SDLP MP Eddie McGrady over the period January to March 2008, plus £1,074 in food expenses.

Mr McGrady and Ulster Lady Sylvia Hermon are the only two Northern Ireland MPs who do not also have Assembly seats.

Lady Sylvia’s second home allowance payments in early 2008 involved £1,450 per month for rent. She did not claim for food.

The information published by the Commons today included property deal details for two of Northern Ireland’s wealthiest MPs, Alasdair McDonnell of the SDLP and the DUP’s David Simpson.

It stated that Mr McDonnell had a £460,000 interest-only mortgage on a London apartment bought in 2005, while Mr Simpson paid £318,500 for his property the following year. They have each claimed mortgage interest payments from the Commons.

Mr McDonnell claims did not include food, while Mr Simpson regularly claimed the maximum £400 per month.

Mr Simpson’s furniture expenses in 2006 included £455 for a beige high back chair.

Mr McDonnell's office-running bills included a 20p box of staples and a £3.49 Starbucks bill.

He also submitted an £83.41 Tesco shopping bill last year, comprising a number of foodstuffs including teabags, chocolate cake and Chinese stir fry items.

The SDLP MP yesterday said foodstuffs were purchased by his staff for the use of constituents at coffee mornings and at his office.

DUP couple Peter and Iris Robinson each claimed £400 per month for food in a six-month period in 2007, and £200 per month in early 2008.

They received mortgage |interest on a London Docklands apartment they jointly own.

Mrs Robinson also submitted an offices expenses receipt in 2006 for a £300 Mont Blanc fountain pen, a £6 bottle of ink and £46 for perfume.

She was not reimbursed for these items, with a Commons expenses form showing the items having been scored out.

A DUP spokesman last night said that the claim by Mrs Robinson for these items had been “submitted in error” by her office.

He said: “The Fees Office was correct not to process these items. Mrs Robinson has one of the lowest expense claims of all the Northern Ireland MPs, as well as being in the lowest 15% of expense claims in the House of Commons.”

Mrs Robinson’s expenses for living away from their Belfast home also involved a £132 hotel bill in February 2008, including a 95p mini-bar item.

DUP MP Gregory Campbell’s expenses included mortgage interest on a London property and a council tax bill of £1,509.

He also claimed £226 per month for food in early 2008.

His claims in 2007 included £2,474 in legal fees in connection with the London property acquisition.

His party colleagues Sammy Wilson and Jeffrey Donaldson received mortgage interest on a London flat they jointly own.

Their expenses claims in the first quarter of 2008 also included cleaning bills of £50 and £32. In February 2008, Mr Wilson claimed £300 for food while Mr Donaldson claimed £158.

Prior to his London property purchase, Mr Wilson claimed for hotel expenses.

In a one month period in the spring of 2005, his hotel expenses came to £820.25, with one of the hotel bills including £2.25 for “mini bar Pringles” and a £1 “charity donation”.

The expenses of senior DUP MP Nigel Dodds in February 2008 included mortgage interest of £1,424 a month, £45 for food and £65 for cleaning.

The second home allowance is likely to be substantially reformed or scrapped as part of an ongoing review of parliamentary expenses aimed at trying to claw back some credibility for Parliament.