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

The Members were elected by a party. That is the party the people voted for. We will clarify that subsection and I am sure Deputies here will want amendments to it on Report Stage. What is most interesting is that it goes on to state that the allowance for those Members can be transferred to a different party from which they were not elected, and which they probably bitterly opposed during the election campaign. Nevertheless, the money can travel with them to another party. The same section states that if some of those Members leave their party and do not join another party, there is no provision for their allowance to travel with them. It appears to be lost back to the Exchequer. The only option this section allows is that if members of a party, en masse, dissolve a party and move to another party, the allowance can go to the new party. If some of them do not go, the allowance is lost back to the Exchequer. Finally, subsection (13) states, "The Houses of the Oireachtas Commission may make regulations for the purposes of subsection (5)”. That does not synchronise 100% with what the Minister has been saying. This is a clear exception. We will call it an exception to the general rule the Minister has been arguing.