Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This goes to the very core of the legislation and it is relevant. I appreciate that Oireachtas Members are elected on the basis of how they present themselves at election time, whether as members of a political party or not. However, they are also individually selected. The two go hand in hand so the Minister cannot say the party brand supersedes the individual. Perhaps we will have an answer to that at the next election. It is important that the Minister acknowledge that a party is more than just a logo. It is not just a name and a brand after one's name. It is about what the party stands for and what platform it stands on at election time. A number of Members have spoken of some of us here "leaving" our parliamentary party. We did not leave our parliamentary party; we were kicked out for a very specific reason, for upholding a pre-election pledge. If one wants to drill down into the essence of this, what are the sanctions for political parties that do not honour their pre-election platforms?