Paul Bradford (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his response and my colleagues for their comments. The more one listens, the more one learns and the more one debates, the more angles that emerge. To use the analogy of Inspector Clouseau, I was waiting for the one statement, the one comment or the one obvious line in the debate that I had missed which might have drawn it all together. The Minister has said, as he has said heretofore and it has been my difficulty how to address it, that we must respect this snapshot in time, that the starting point must be the general election. I discussed this issue with a colleague at the weekend as to how I would address the point about the snapshot in time, that it was the silver bullet. If I want to be genuine in pressing my amendment, I must be able to respond to the Minister's snapshot in time argument. The answer was staring me in the face all along, but I did not see it. I refer my colleagues to how the legislation is framed and how the calculation is to be arrived at. As per the Minister's legislation, a paragraph in the section reads, "members of that party elected to Dáil Éireann at the last preceding general election or a subsequent bye-election". Therefore, there is no single, once-off snapshot in time in respect of those elected to Dáil Éireann or Seanad Éireann or those elected in a subsequent by-election.