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

I move amendment No. 6:

In page 4, between lines 21 and 22, to insert the following:“(3) The parliamentary activities allowance shall be paid from voted expenditure not paid from the Central Fund.”.

Approximately €50 billion of Government expenditure is voted to the various Departments every year. There is a proper debate on the Estimates in the committees and that is how practically all the Government's expenditure of taxpayers' money should be dealt with. There must be a compelling reason for it not to be voted on in the House. Some people say that is a valid argument with regard to payments of the national debt because people might not be happy to lend us money if they thought the repayment was subject to the vagaries of a vote in the House each year. The State is contractually obliged to pay it, regardless of what the Parliament says, because the State has signed up to that and it is the State's word. There is a valid case to be made on that point, although I do not accept the total validity of that case. I believe there could be a provision in the Estimates that would more than encompass what we know must be paid, but that is another day's work.

A number of items are paid from the Central Fund and many of them have been sneaked in. Payments are made to the Oireachtas, to this allowance, to judges, retired politicians-----

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