Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

In truth, it goes to a political party, and from that the political parties organise their supports. The Deputy is saying the money we get for that is individuals' money but there is then collective money that needed to be done on top of that. We need a balance between them. I am supportive of co-ordination in general terms and I understand the point about being a hirer but no individual Member, be they from Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin, Labour or Fine Gael, sees a cent of that money. It is all well spent within the organisation to provide parliamentary supports. If all the money that went to Independents was simply put into a fund as opposed to given to individual Members, they could have similar supports, but that is something that might be addressed in the next Dáil. I provided a copy of my speech to explain the grant-in-aid issue and I think it is clear about that.

The final point made by the Deputy concerns secretarial assistance. This is just at a request of the House itself. When I became a Minister, my secretarial assistant, who spent many years here on the payroll of the Houses of the Oireachtas, was taken off that payroll and put on the payroll of my Department. For continuity and simplicity, it is better that all secretarial assistants are treated the same way rather than hopping in and out of it. That is what is intended by that.

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