THE RTE presenter, Pat Kenny, was criticised by the Minister for Finance for refusing to tell the public what he earned, while using the airwaves to publicise increased allowances for Oireachtas representatives.
"There is an extraordinary juxtaposition in interest, particularly from journalists and commentators, who refuse to reveal their earnings yet have a voyeuristic obsession with what we are paid,"
Mr Quinn said in the debate on the Second Stage of the Oireachtas Allowances Bill which was passed.
He said there was a view that any measures associated with politicians' expenses were considered somehow suspect and were only discussed because there was some cause for complaint or scandal. That in part explained the publicity the Bill had attracted.
Political parties were the skeleton of parliamentary democracy yet they were not provided for in the Constitution. The concept had not been all that fashionable in the 1930s. The absence of parties from the Constitution made it more difficult to provide legislation to support them.
This legislation had to be seen in the context of the provisions for elections on the one hand and the provisions for support for registered political parties who got 2 per cent or more in general elections, Mr Quinn said.