Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent)

On Committee Stage, the argument we heard was that political parties get millions of euros extra funding because they have special duties and special things to do that Independent Deputies do not have to do. I wonder what they are if we think about what we all contribute to parliamentary democracy. My office comes up with policy, has plenty of administration, conducts local meetings - we held three public meetings on the referendum in Wicklow - and deals with the media. I am curious as to what all these special duties parties' have. When I compare what I do and what my team and office do here and in Wicklow, it is not apparent to me that there are millions of euro extra things Deputy Micheál Martin does as leader of Fianna Fáil, although I am sure there are some. I do not hold a convention during the year attended by lots of people but the argument that there are lots of things parties must do, such as devise policy, administration, hold local meetings and local administration which I, as an Independent Deputy do not have to do, does not stack up.

Like Deputy Murphy, I accept the argument for funding for political parties. I am in no way against political parties. I am an Independent Deputy because I decided to run for election about six weeks before the general election, and maybe none of the parties would have had me anyway. A situation where Deputy Micheál Martin gets more than four times the funding per Fianna Fáil Deputy than I get sounds imbalanced. Maybe it is the case that every single Fianna Fáil Deputy creates at least four times more value in our democracy than I do. I do not think that is true but they get more than four times more money.

The second argument is that the Technical Group has no secretariat. As the Minister knows, the parties get 0.8 whole-time equivalents per Deputy but we do not get any. Even if we did not take any additional money and even if the funding did not follow the Deputy, it is reasonable to say that, as a group, we can be most effective with some of the resources parties have, such as the ability to draft legislation, to have amendments reviewed by legal expertise and so on. There is something to that.

I would like a system whereby political funding followed the Deputy, as the Deputy is the person invested with the democratic mandate, and if Deputies want to form a party and pool their money, that is fine. That is what I would advocate for. Failing that, I would certainly advocate for some secretariat support for a group like the Technical Group in order for it to be as effective as possible and failing that, I would point to Deputy Murphy's final point. Even if we want to continue a situation where Fianna Fáil gets 4.3 times the funding per Deputy the Independents get and we think that is reasonable and we think it is reasonable that the second largest Opposition group does not get any secretariat support, which everybody else gets, at least save the rest of the money. Currently, as Deputy Murphy pointed out, the extra money does not go back to the Exchequer but the parties get more because there is an unusual number of Independent Deputies. Deputy Murphy's amendment talks to that quite well. I do not imagine we will win this but for future consideration, I would appreciate it if the Minister would take those points on board.

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