Susan O'Keeffe (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Senator Crown is having a moment of naivety which is rare for him. He has suggested that there is no cost to the running of a political system. There is, of course, like anything else and the idea that at any point a Government would choose not to pay any money to keep the political system running is absolutely absurd. The point I raised on Second Stage is that if one were to go down that road, it is fine and we will have a Galway tent, a Tipperary tent, a Mayo tent and every other sort of tent where people put their hands in their pockets and pay political parties. We would not know who is paying and we would not know how much. For Senator Crown to inflate figures and make it look as if millions of euro are being spent in a wasteful fashion to run political parties is-----