Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)

It is important to note that political parties are different from Independents. Independents have a fair bit of financial support already through various other sources which members of political parties do not have. We give that money to ensure we have a strong organisation and press and communications system in place. I do not expect Deputy Murphy or Deputy Donnelly to have an apparatus in place which would support 35,000 members of a national organisation. That is what the Fine Gael Party must support. Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin and the Labour Party must also support organisations. Political parties have a lot of responsibility to their membership. There is a lot more to supporting a political structure than being an individual.

If we are to have a strong and cohesive parliamentary democracy and political system, it must be supported, otherwise we will have a collection of 166 Independents. We would probably have elections on a very regular basis, which may suit some people, but it would not provide any stability or confidence to the country if we could not show that we could generate stability and confidence between political parties to have a programme for Government. The same would apply to the Opposition in terms of research, press and communications and managing the structure of a political party, which is a fairly mammoth task.

Obviously, people who have not been involved in political parties would not understand that. Deputy Murphy, who was part of a political party in the past, should understand that there are a lot of responsibilities in terms of supporting the membership of a national organisation which she does not have to support currently. She gets a considerable amount of resources from the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform which we must submit to our political parties for the purpose of meeting our obligations, structures and staffing, which she does not have to do.

The balance is between whether one supports the political parties in the way they come together as a cohesive unit, albeit there will be differences within that unit in terms of policy propositions. However, once they are decided, we must have the stability to follow them through. Therefore, I reject the amendment.

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