Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail)

I have a request for the Minister on the same line of thought as Senator Fitzgerald. I mentioned this to him privately but I got delayed at a parliamentary party meeting which disabled me from being here to put it forward. I ask the Minister to examine section 121 for Report Stage. It raises a most serious issue. It deals with an employee of the authority who is immediately seconded from employment where he will lose his salary and, if I am interpreting it correctly, his pension rights for the period if he is elected to the Oireachtas, the European Parliament or a local authority. There may be a case regarding the Oireachtas and the European Parliament, which would be classified as full-time positions. However, if we are saying a person elected to a local authority is automatically seconded and therefore displaced from his or her employment for the period of local authority membership, we are sending an alarming signal for democracy. It says to all private sector employers that this should perhaps be a template for them and anybody elected to a local authority would not be able to hold down a full-time position. That would be a serious retrograde step. We are saying to local government that only people who are retired, unemployed or self-employed can participate in that very important arm of democracy.

If my interpretation is correct, I would express much opposition to that section and I ask the Minister to examine it closely. There is an anomaly in it because it specifies an employee of a local authority at a level below chief executive officer. If I am reading it correctly, that implies that a chief executive officer can run for the Seanad, the European Parliament, the Dáil or a local authority and still hold down his or her job but people below that level cannot do so. I do not see why that should be there, certainly regarding a member of a local authority.

I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach for indulging me to allow me to make the point, given that I missed the section when it was discussed here.