(1) Where a person employed by the Commission is -

(a) nominated as a member of Seanad E´ ireann,

(b) elected as a member of either House of the Oireachtas or to the European Parliament, or

(c) regarded pursuant to Part XIII of the Second Schedule to the European Parliament Elections Act, 1997, as having been elected to the European Parliament to fill a vacancy,

he or she shall upon that happening stand seconded from his or her employment by the Commission and shall not be paid by, or be entitled to receive from, the Commission remuneration or allowances in respect of the period commencing on such nomination or election, or when he or she is so regarded as having been elected, as the case may be, and ending when he or she ceases to be a member of either House or such Parliament.

(2) A person who is, for the time being, entitled under the Standing Orders of either House of the Oireachtas to sit in either House or who is a member of the European Parliament shall, while he or she is so entitled or is such a member, be disqualified from becoming a member of the staff of the Commission.

(3) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1), that subsection shall be read as prohibiting, among other things, the reckoning of a period mentioned in that subsection as service with the Commission for the purposes of any superannuation benefits.