Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 3, between lines 11 and 12, to insert the following:
“2. Within 30 days of the commencement of this Act the Minister shall, by way of regulation, introduce a provision whereby the parliamentary activities allowance payable to the leader of a qualifying party shall be paid to that qualifying party.”.

If the Minister listens to my reason for this amendment he will see it is pure common sense. The purpose of the amendment is to change the payment from the party leader's allowance to the parliamentary activities allowance. The cheque comes from the Department of Finance or perhaps from the Minister's Department. It comes from the Central Fund. It should not come from the Central Fund, nor should it be made payable to the party leader, for instance, Deputy Éamon Gilmore, Deputy Micheál Martin or Deputy Enda Kenny. It should be payable to the party. Up to now the allowance is deemed to be the party leader's allowance and the payment is made payable to the leader. It will now become a parliamentary activities allowance and it is only logical that the payee should be changed to the party name in the case of a party or to an individual Member where applicable. The payment should not be paid to the leader personally. The Minister may supply a more precise wording but I will return with a more precise wording on Report Stage. This amendment may be changed because I was caught for time when tabling it.