December 2003 - Review of Electoral Acts

Section 2 General Commentary

The Standards Commission understands the Electoral Acts to have three main purposes as follows :

1. to provide openness and accountability in the relationships that exist between, on the one hand, political parties and individual politicians and, on the other, those who would support them, whether by way of financial assistance or otherwise;

2. to provide equity and transparency in the electoral process through the limitation and disclosure of election expenditure and by providing a mechanism whereby eligible candidates may recoup part of their election expenses;

3. to provide for Exchequer funding of qualified political parties to assist in their general organisation, development and operation.

It is broadly accepted that, for the proper functioning of a parliamentary democracy, it is necessary that political parties should exist and thrive, supported by the State, acting as a vehicle of political expression for citizens.

Apart from elected representatives and paid headquarters staff, it is generally the case that political parties are comprised of members who give of their time freely in the interests of soliciting support for a party and promoting its objectives.

Political parties and individual political activists must be enabled to communicate with the electorate and must be in a position to maintain their organisations and develop policies on a wide range of issues which impact on many aspects of everyday life. In order to do so, it is essential that they should have sufficient resources, including, very importantly, adequate funding.

Political funding can take a number of different forms. These include :

• membership fees paid to political parties and other political groups,
• direct assistance from the Exchequer, the cost of which is met by the taxpayer,
• donations by individuals, corporate entities and other bodies,
• fund-raising activities and,
• to a lesser extent, involvement by political parties in commercial activity.

It should be noted that, in this jurisdiction, direct Exchequer funding of qualified political parties, which now amounts to approximately €10.4 million annually, cannot be used to finance election or referendum campaigns. This is an important point in the context of the need to raise funds from other sources in order to fund such campaigns.

The extent to which political activity should be supported in the form of Exchequer funding of political parties and candidates is a matter for the Oireachtas. (Funding of candidates arises by way of reimbursements of certain election expenses which are paid by the Exchequer to qualified candidates at Dáil and European Parliament elections.)

There is a view that public money should not be used for these purposes in any circumstances and / or that those taxpayers who have a particular political affiliation, or none, should not be expected to contribute, albeit indirectly, to the advancement of a political cause to which they hold no allegiance. The opposite view is that political funding should be entirely from the public purse and that all other forms of financing, including benefits in kind, should be prohibited.

Another approach, which has international approval *, is for a mix in the sources of funding, accompanied by clear rules and reporting mechanisms to ensure that public money is allocated on an equitable basis and is utilised for the purposes intended and that donations and election spending are controlled and supervised.

As already stated, the Standards Commission is not in a position to determine the content of legislation. It is, however, of the view that the system which has been operating under the Electoral Acts is now well established and strikes a reasonable balance in terms of recognising the need for financing of political activity and the requirement for openness, accountability and transparency. Not unexpectedly, there are difficulties with some aspects of the current regime and many of these are dealt with in Sections 3 and 4 of this document. In that regard, it should be recognised that the Standards Commission can offer views from its perspective and experience only. It fully accepts that other stakeholders may wish to comment on problems they have encountered with the legislation, including, perhaps, supervision thereof by the Standards Commission.

* See "Council of Europe. Recommendation Rec (2003) 4 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on common rules against corruption in the funding of political parties and electoral campaigns". Adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 8 April 2003 at the 835th meeting of the Ministers' Deputies.

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