No Act has been passed declaring that a Deputy must comply with the terms of the Constitution within a given period. It has been left over. It would be open to anyone on the last or any of the final days of the sitting of the Dáil to enter the House and become a member. There are provisions in the Payment of Members Act, I believe, stipulating from what period any allowance would be paid, but other than that, there is nothing provided for. The other question is a political question, and my personal view is that it is better to let those matters rest. It is, after all, a question for the constituencies: if they are dissatisfied with the persons they have elected. They have elected them. Certain sections in the country, under the Constitution and under the proportional representation system, have the right, if they so desire, of electing persons who would not take their seats in the Dáil. An interference with that just now would, in my view, be rather unfair.
I have previously expressed here what my views were on the question of proportional representation for any constituency returning more than one member—which applies to every constituency—that an election which is brought about either by death or resignation is not fair to the particular section of the community that sent the particular member here. Let us take, as an instance, the Independent members, apart from those representing Trinity College. A by-election in any constituency would, in the majority of cases, not result in the return of a person who would represent the particular section of the community which had previously returned an Independent member. In my view, that is unfair; but that view is not shared by others. If Deputies would wish me to be more explicit, I would take as an illustration a Deputy representing, say, the Chamber of Commerce in Dublin or the Dublin Port and Docks Board—a man of that type having a city seat and vacating it. It is unlikely that at a by-election a representative of the same group would be elected. Such Deputies represent something a little different from what is called the majority party, and my view is that you disturb the essence of proportional representation if you place upon the shoulders of the whole electorate the responsibility of returning a Deputy in such a case. Probably a supporter of the majority party would be returned, while the person vacating the seat might be a minority member. It appears to me a better method of selection, as long as proportional representation is the method of election, to allow the particular sections responsible for the nomination of the original Deputy to nominate his successor, and to have his co-option moved in the Dáil. That view is not accepted by other people, but I think it is the essence of proportional representation.