Paul Bradford (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 4:

In page 4, between lines 17 and 18, to insert the following:“(2) Where a member of a qualifying party ceases to be a member of the Parliamentary Party of that party, no allowance shall be payable in respect of that member and the allowance payable under this section shall be reduced proportionately.”.

The word "fairness" has been used frequently in the debate over the past 20 minutes with regard to other sections. I want the Minister to reflect on that word in respect of this amendment. The amendment is about the transparency and accountability that the Minister espouses and the reform he aspires to bring about. It is also about fairness and democracy. We spoke on this matter last week and there has been a debate over the past number of months about the desirability and fairness, or otherwise, of the parliamentary party's keeping an allowance in respect of Members who are no longer within the parliamentary party. While no Minister or spokesperson has put it officially on the record, on the margins the argument is made that parliamentary parties and party structures have invested time, resources and finance in the election of particular candidates and, therefore, there should be some entitlement for the parliamentary party to retain the allowance payable in respect of Members no longer within the parliamentary party. The Minister is aware that under this legislation, the parliamentary activities allowance, previously called the party leaders' allowance, shall not be used to recoup election or poll expenses incurred for the purposes of any election. The unofficial reason we get - that somehow we owe it to the party to allow our money to stay with the party - is in respect of election costs heretofore, but moneys cannot be spent on that.

Then we ask what the moneys can legally be spent on. I refer to expenses as interpreted by the proposed Bill. The money that the Fine Gael, Labour or Sinn Féin parliamentary parties wish to keep in respect of former members are supposed to be spent on general administration of the parliamentary activities of the qualifying party, the provision of technical and specialist advice, research and training, policy formulation, etc. I ask the Minister to reflect upon the fact that no parliamentary party, under any circumstances, can validly claim it is expending the allowable expenses on Members that are no longer within the parliamentary party. Is the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party spending money on research and training for me? Is the Labour Party spending money on policy formulation in respect of Deputy Patrick Nulty? Is the Sinn Féin Parliamentary Party spending general administrative costs on the parliamentary activities of Deputy Peadar Tóibín? It is impossible for a parliamentary party to suggest the expenses it is entitled to claim under these headings can be spent on Members who are no longer within the parliamentary party.

We all appreciate that when the democratic revolution was promised after the general election, there was a huge appetite for reform, a greater understanding of the financial problems facing the country and a demand for fairness, accountability and transparency. I appreciate what the Minister said on the record last week and what we all said in the heat of political battle. If the Bill means anything in respect of reform and even pretends to be transparent and portray itself as accountable or any way fair, it makes no political sense, no financial sense and no moral sense to allow a parliamentary party to keep taxpayers' money in respect of persons who are no longer within it. We spoke earlier about the need for support, research and training of all Members and the Leader spoke strongly on the need for equality. I agreed with him.

In an ideal world, I suggest that the allowance payable in respect of an Independent Senator be payable to those who find ourselves with that status. However, the amendment is not going that far and simply says an allowance should not be paid for expenses that cannot be incurred. There is no way a qualifying parliamentary party can claim to validly spend moneys under the appropriate headings for people who are no longer within the political party. It defies common sense and logic to suggest otherwise. How can a party purchase support services in respect of Members no longer within the parliamentary party? How can a party justify paying a salary in respect of duties to support someone who is no longer in it? In the overall scale of the national budget we are talking about a modest sum, but my estimate is that in a full calendar year €500,000 or €600,000 of taxpayers' hard-delivered moneys are being handed over wrongly and unfairly to parliamentary parties.