Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In relation to Independents who join parties, the practice may be that they give up the allowance but as I understand it, when this was a live issue in the media during the last Dáil the legal advice was that they do not have to give it up. The Minister might confirm, unless he is changing it in this Bill, that this was never the position and that people do it because it is the right thing to do. I wonder if the Minister was to provide for this in law it would beg the question as to why it would not apply in the reverse. If an Independent joins a party today and he or she wishes to retain the allowance there is nothing, except media pressure, to prevent him or her doing so. I believe if there was media interest in this measure the Minister would reverse course pretty quickly.