Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 12:

In page 5, between lines 11 and 12, to insert the following:“(5) Assigning responsibility for the management of all accommodation functions, including office accommodation for Members elected to the Houses of the Oireachtas, will be within the power of the Secretary General and the assignee will report to the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission who will oversee and direct the management of this function as appropriate.”.”.

The amendment relates to decisions made regarding office accommodation. The current practice is that the Chief Whip makes decisions on where all Members of the House are based. The amendment proposes that we de-politicise the current arrangement, take the decision-making power away from the Chief Whip and give it to the Secretary General of the Houses of the Oireachtas. The current system is most unfair and undemocratic. The Chief Whip can and does act in a partisan manner at times and decisions are made to remove people forcibly from their offices, on which Deputy Mathews will speak. He has direct experience of the removal of his papers, which was completely out of order.

Renua Ireland believes that the Government of the day, in particular the Chief Whip, should have no entitlement to manage and assign office accommodation and should not disrupt Members who have been elected by the people to serve them. As the Minister knows, everyone in this House works extremely hard. We want to de-politicise the distribution of office space and ensure that all Members of the Oireachtas, who have an equal constitutional mandate, are treated with full equality regarding all of these matters. This issue forms part of a wider narrative in terms of the Government's diminishing of political opponents.

I refer to speaking time and rights. Those who are not members of the main Opposition parties, including Fianna Fáil and the Technical Group, are treated very poorly in terms of speaking slots. We do not have an equal opportunity to put our points across. We are all Members and are supposed to be treated equally. We all have the same mandate and are trying to put across our various points, but the current system is unfair.

We had a full discussion on Committee Stage about parliamentary allowances and the taking of moneys by political parties when Members are no longer part of them. Renua Ireland wants the membership of a political party to be reviewed on a yearly basis, and if one is not a member of a party at the end of a calendar year a party would not be able to draw down that money. Taxpayers' money should no longer go to fund parties to which Members no longer belong. We want fairness on this. The Chief Whip should not be able to make such decisions; the power should lie with the Secretary General of the Houses of the Oireachtas.

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