Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 3, between lines 11 and 12, to insert the following:“2. Within 30 days of the commencement of this Act the Minister shall, by way of regulation, introduce a provision whereby the parliamentary activities allowance paid to the leader of a qualifying party shall be paid to that qualifying party.”.

We discussed the substance of this amendment on Committee Stage when I stated that I would move it again and asked the Minister to consider it in the intervening period. The allowance should be paid to the qualifying party as opposed to the qualifying party leader. On Committee Stage, amendments were moved concerning Members who, having been elected to qualifying parties, left those parties to become Independents or whatever. Similar amendments will be moved on Report Stage requiring the money to follow the Member. The Minister was clear in his response, in that those Members were elected to parties, with party logos and names on the ballot papers. His logic of the party being more important than the Member is the same logic I am using now, in that the payment should be to the party rather than a named individual. The Minister has given pre-eminence to the party in some sections of the legislation. As such, this allowance should be payable to the party.

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