Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is very welcome. I have read the record and last week he responded to me on this issue on Second Stage. I concur with everything said by Senator Bradford, who has put the argument extremely well. I ask the Minister to reconsider his views from last week in light of the fact that this Bill does not deal with electoral expenses. I put it to the Minister last week that my party of origin in this House, Fine Gael, continues to get €21,045 for both me and Senator Bradford, as well as approximately €40,000 per person per year in the Dáil, for people who lost the party whip arising from the abortion Bill vote. We were not allowed to speak freely and our party changed its policy from the day we were elected. Our hands were tied.

I will deal with a number of issues. This Bill does not deal with electoral expenses and the costs incurred by a party contributing to an election. That was the Minister's thinking last week in his response to me and Senator Bradford, which I accept, but in view of our study of the Bill since, it has become clear that these moneys are disbursed by the citizens of this country through the Exchequer to political parties for their members to be supported in parliamentary activities. It is to be used for research, personnel and press support. In our parliamentary system, how is it proposed that a Member losing a parliamentary party whip - due to a break in policy from the time of election, for example, as in our case - would fund research, personnel and press support? What makes the parliamentary party from which they have been expelled or have walked away entitled to the money?

Senator Bradford indicated that we should be honest and do things differently. Just because things have been done in a particular way in the past does not make it right. When the Government took office, for the first time there was a title of Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, and the intention was to do things differently in the interest of the taxpayer. It is not right or just that a party continues to get money for any of us who have been expelled from the party because the money is no longer being spent on us as Members. Could I justifiably expect Fine Gael to support my research or press activities? I could not, yet the party is getting money in my name, and it will get €21,045 per year for at least the rest of the term of this Government. That amounts to approximately €50,000 if it goes to the full term. How is that right or just? It is not.

Technically, we are elected and we deserve to be supported in our parliamentary activities. We are not even making a case for the money to be given to us, even though, under the principle of parity of esteem, as mentioned by Senator van Turnhout, it should be. The taxpayer and the people who elected us expect us to do as good a job as anybody else. We are asking that the moneys be refunded to the Exchequer - or rather, not taken from the Exchequer in the first place. Could we ask anything more honourable? When the public hears what is going on here in the fullness of time, unless there is a change, they will see this as an insider job for parties that are minding themselves. Parties can chuck out Members but they will still get paid for them. Where is the justice in that?

Senator Bradford alluded to the fact that we sometimes hear of doctors on the medical card scheme who continue to get an allowance for patients who have died. In such cases the State has not done its job in tracking the issue and the doctor has not done his job properly by reporting the deaths. There is no honesty in such cases. We want a different type of politics. We could use the allowance to be more effective parliamentarians, but we are asking the Minister to accept our amendment and return the money to the people of Ireland through the Exchequer. I ask the Minister to honour this wish.