Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail)

If the Leas-Chathaoirleach bears with me, I will get to the point. My late father was an Independent councillor for some 20 years, most of which were during my growing period. I can remember him fighting elections as an Independent and coming up against the considerable resources political parties bring to bear when fighting elections. I have a great deal of empathy with Independent candidates given the financial burdens placed on them when contesting a Seanad, Dáil or council election. This burden increases considerably when they are elected.

I am interested in hearing the Minister's views on the amendment. As matters stand, the transparency and accountability sought in the amendment will not apply to current allowances. In one sense, I can understand the reluctance to go down this road. The allowance is currently granted to Independent Members and used, I presume, to enable them to compete with party representatives in getting a message across, influencing the flow of information and for the other activities associated with being an elected Member of Parliament.

While I support the amendment, I have a small but nagging doubt about opening up this particular avenue of discussion. On the one hand, we are all conscious of the media which are constantly looking for any opportunity to call politics and the political class to account and sell newspapers. The latter objective is the priority in many cases and is often cloaked in an argument about the public interest. My immediate reaction when I received a freedom of information request on the usage of printer cartridges was to ask how much further the media would go and if they would ask us to account for paper clips. As we have discovered since, the journalist in question knew a little more than the rest of us when he submitted the request.

I am curious to learn the Minister's views about the status quo. It is important that the allowance continues to be paid, which will be case under the legislation. When the media gets on a particular hobby-horse and apply pressure, as they have done during many Governments, the political class often responds in a knee-jerk fashion. If such pressure is applied in this case and the allowance comes under threat, it would not be in the best interests of or serve well the parliamentary and democratic process.

The Minister may correct me if I am wrong but a cursory reading of the information on allowances given to political parties indicates they are subject to specific guidelines. Do these guidelines apply across the board, including to allowances to Independent Members? It would be unfair if that were the case because one cannot compare an Independent Member with a party, which is an institution. I am curious to learn if the guidelines relating to spending the allowances, which appear restrictive, apply also to Independent Members. They should be applied in a more liberal manner to Independent allowances. That is an argument for another day, however.

Overall, there is no reason the Government should object to an initiative from Independents that seeks greater accountability for Independent Members. Addressing the reasons the allowance should be stopped could head off further attacks on the allowance.