Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to be back in the Seanad, to which I have become a frequent visitor. I should get mileage points. I have learned from my visits to this House that its debates are eclectic and broad ranging, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

The purpose of the Bill is simple. It implements our commitment to reduce the party leaders' allowance, as it was then called, or the parliamentary activities allowance, as it will be known henceforth, for all recipients. At the same time, it is being used as a legislative vehicle to end severance payments for Ministers which many people found anomalous. Once an individual had left office as a Minister, he or she received a top-up payment, even if he or she remained a Member of the Oireachtas, to ease him or her back to normality.