David Cullinane (Sinn Fein)

Section 10(4) enables "a member of the Oireachtas or the European Parliament or .... holder of a qualifying office" who previously lost his or her seat but subsequently regained it to retain his or her membership of what we see as the more generous scheme. Why should one rule apply to someone in the public sector who happens to be a public representative when an entirely different rule applies to people who work in the public service generally? We do not believe that would be fair because the Government would be treating one set of public servants differently from another group of public servants. The Minister has explained the rationale for this provision. We accept the merit and logic of the move to a single scheme, but we believe it should apply to all elected representatives and all qualifying groups. We do not see why elected representatives should be exempt from what the Government deems appropriate for those in the rest of the public service. We will pursue this amendment, which we have tabled for the reasons I have outlined.