Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I did not interrupt the Senator when he was speaking. Allow me to answer. A resource is put in. There is a certain tautology involved in the notion that Senators are not political. I know that the Labour Party normally puts up one candidate on each panel. We normally put up two in the case of the Labour panel. We divide the number of councillors' votes because we expect our councillors to vote for our candidates. Of course, it is not political. That is a competitive spot and if we put up a candidate to fly the flag for the party and abide by party decisions and so on, we expect that person to be true to that. The Labour Party requires every candidate to sign a party pledge that says that the candidate will always comply with the instructions of the national executive of the party and that in the event that they cannot, they will resign their seat. I know of cases where people have been elected representatives for a very short period of time, involving a huge resource, and walked away. Should that person then be entitled to walk away from the resources, such as personnel, put into their election and the party be deprived of that? I am not sure that is a good thing.