Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The two sources of State funding are through the Electoral Act and through the leaders' allowance. One is paid per Deputy; the leaders' allowance has a sliding scale. As the Minister pointed out, the Exchequer funding through the Electoral Act is paid per vote. Whether it is paid per Deputy or per vote, it does not take a great leap to say that the Deputies present today got the votes for which Fine Gael is getting the money. It is certainly not a great leap to say that when considering the money that should move with a Member of the Oireachtas, one can consider the money that goes for his or her seat and the money that goes in some proportion for the votes he or she got because both amounts of money are directly linked to those Deputies.

The Bill renames the leaders' allowance the parliamentary activities allowance. It would provide that for three Deputies present and other Deputies and Senators the funding provided by the voter for parliamentary activities of Deputies will not be given to Deputies who are kicked out of their parties. That is an extraordinary thing to say to the voter. It is saying that the voter will pay for my parliamentary activities as well as those of Deputies Fleming, Murphy and Humphreys, but not for the parliamentary activities of these three Deputies. That is an extraordinary position.

Do they not have parliamentary activities in which they need to engage as Members of the Dáil in the same way that the rest of us do? The direct implication of not giving taxpayer money for parliamentary activities to a Member, who is kicked out of or leaves his or her party, is that the Member does not have the same parliamentary activities to do that the rest of us have to do. I ask for the Minister's opinion on that. That seems to be the inference of not giving them the money, which seems bizarre.