Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent) | Oireachtas source

In opposition, Deputy Adams will get, per TD, over four times what is provided to Independent TDs, and Deputy Martin, as leader of Fianna Fáil, will get, per TD, four and a half times what is provided to Independent TDs.

The Government reminds us ad nauseam that Fianna Fáil destroyed the country, but it stands over giving that party, per TD, four and a half times what is provided to Independent TDs. Why is that? Is it not because the Government thinks they are worth it. How is this democratic? How is this healthy? How is it a fair and proper allocation of funding to Members of Dáil Éireann?

We tend to hear that it costs money to run a party and, therefore, Deputy Martin should get per TD four and a half times, over €160,000, what is provided to Independent TDs. When, in committee, we have asked what is this for, we were told it is for research, policy development, training and administration. Independent TDs carry out all those functions too, yet we are asked to do it for four and a half times less than party TDs, without any of the economies of scale that parties have.

Let us not forget that this funding goes to and stays with the parties even when members of those parties leave or are expelled. I have run the numbers on the Labour Party Deputies and Fine Gael Deputies and Senators who have left or been expelled from their parties, and it turns out that the Tánaiste and the Taoiseach will get approximately €2.2 million over the course of this Dáil for TDs who are not in their parties. That is easy money. I would say there are many businesses out there that would like to know how they can get €2 million from the Exchequer for staff whom they have had to let go. In his speech, the Minister addressed this. He stated:

It has been suggested that in the event that a Member of a party loses the party Whip, the parliamentary party should have its funding reduced [Deputy Catherine Murphy, myself and many others have suggested exactly that]. Not only does that suggestion miss the point that the money given to the party, reflecting the wishes of the electorate, is not the individual's and was never theirs to control or spend in that fashion...

The Minister and I have debated this previously and we have fundamentally different views on it, but I put it to him again that the electorate does not vote for parties.

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