Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We make those discernments. I accept that people who operate outside their parties also get elected but they still have to convince their party councillors to vote for them which Senator Walsh did very well. For anyone wishing to do tutorials about it, I would recommend it. There was no luck involved. Well travelled politicians in this House and the other House do not operate on that basis.

Reference was made to the inability to alter the fixed decision made on the day of the election. If I leave my party, the party is not disadvantaged by that in terms of parliamentary support and if an Independent joins a political party, as happened in this House, he or she does not bring the allowance into the party. It works both ways. It is a system that has worked well. I understand the motivation of those arguing the point and respect their points of view but the coherence of our parliamentary system and the supports parliamentary parties need to bring to debates in this House, communication with the electorate and the refinement and discernment of policies separate from the policies of Government, in terms of parties having to exist separately to prepare to forthcoming elections, is served well by the system I am proposing in this Bill. If the view is that we need to look at this issue generally I have no difficulty with that but that debate is not appropriate to this particular legislation.