Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Senator Bradford continues to shout me down. I believe that if people feel they cannot abide by their party pledge and certainly if they are in the other House, the appropriate moral thing to do is to resign their seat and test the people. If the people want to elect an Independent, that should accrue to them. That would be my personal view. It is slightly more complicated in this House because the electorate for replacement is different. We can debate these matters more succinctly because although they are completely irrelevant to this legislation before the House, I know they are high on the agenda of some Members and I wanted to respond as best I could to that.

Senator Paul Coghlan raised the issue of the offices again. I said I thought there was a real and valid point there but I cannot address it now. Senator Bradford asked a number of questions which I should answer. One relates to ministerial staff. The legislation specifically talks about work in a parliamentary party. It is in the legislation itself. Senator O'Donovan made a strong case for the offices.

By and large, I have covered everything raised by Senators. This is a short piece of legislation. As I said, it aims to do a number of very distinct and clear things we committed to do in both the programme for Government and the budget. The first is to reduce the allowances, the second is to make the entire system more transparent by bringing accountability to allowances paid to Independent Members and the third is to abolish severance payments. I thank the House for its support for the legislation and look forward to the detailed discussion on Committee Stage.