Paul Bradford (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I ask the Minister to reflect on what he has said. He has said that there is a single snapshot in time and that the allowance is determined on the basis of how people voted at the time of a general election, but the formula and language used in the legislation providing for this refers to when a person is elected in a general election or subsequent in a by-election; therefore, there is no single snapshot in time. A by-election changes the allowance calculation. I argue that a person leaving a political party, voluntarily or otherwise, equally changes what the calculation should be. On the issue of the fixed point decision, we can see that there are multiple fixed point decisions.