Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I echo the comments made and support the amendment. There is no justification for political groupings in this House receiving €2.5 million, based on Deputy Stephen Donnelly's figures, over the lifetime of the Government for Members who are no longer in their groupings. We are talking about one tenth of the Dáil’s membership, not one or two Members.

I know the Minister’s argument is that this allowance is based on a Member’s designation on polling day. He has made the argument that people vote for a party, not an individual. That is not the case in Ireland, a point I made clearly to him on Second Stage. He cannot argue that in 1997 when he, Deputy Willie Penrose and others were elected, that it was people voting for the Labour Party. They were voting for him, based on his record. It was the same in 2002 when there was a meltdown in Fine Gael. It was about the individuals who went before the electorate. It was the same in the last general election with Fianna Fáil. It is a significant criticism of the political system that people vote for individuals. Even when one looks at the ballot paper, the majority of the space is taken over by the photographs of the candidates, the candidates' names and addresses, not their party affiliations, which are only a small part of it. It is not fair or right to allocate funding on that basis.

Like Deputy Lucinda Creighton, I also believe it is unconstitutional to discriminate against Members on that basis and that we will be vindicated in the courts, but no one wants to go down that road. This is a sensible amendment. The argument the Minister makes is that polling day or the day on which the House first sits is sacrosanct in determining this allocation. If that is the case, there is a weighting in how funding is distributed between the Government and the Opposition because the Government has more resources available to it. What happened between 1992 and 1997 was that Fine Gael went from being in opposition to being in government, while Fianna Fáil went from being in government to being in opposition. Did Fine Gael hold on to the same funding stream during that time? No, it did not. Fianna Fáil then received a larger proportion. The position does change between elections; it is not based on what happens on polling day. Changes do occur between elections.

I have known the Minister for a long time and he is a fair-minded individual. Will he examine this issue between now and Report Stage? Will he discuss it with the Attorney General to come forward with an amendment that is fair to every Member and to ensure they all receive similar treatment? It is not in anyone’s interest to have this issue dragged out in argy-bargy on Report Stage and to have all of us ending up in the courts to have this legislation changed. Will the Minister examine this amendment sincerely?