Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The purpose is that the Oireachtas one-stop shop made a proposal to allow all Members of the Oireachtas to receive up to 50% of approved security costs, or a maximum of €5,000, whichever is less. This is for a security requirements allowance. We need to make a technical amendment to the legislation because at the moment the Minister's power is limited to making payments which are either in full settlement, recurring in nature or both. This is different. This is in partial settlement and is a once-off expense. That is the need for the technical amendment to the legislation. The security requirement brought forward by the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, Deputy Donohoe, is for a new security requirement allowance to Members of the House of the Oireachtas. This follows a number of incidents involving Members of the House of the Oireachtas and increased security risk.