December 2006 - Guidelines for Political Parties on donations and prohibited donations

7. Political Donations Accounts

An accounting unit of a political party which receives, in a particular year, a monetary donation of more than €126.97 must open and maintain an account in a financial institution in the State and must lodge that donation and any further monetary donations received, of whatever value, to that account.

A definition of what constitutes "a financial institution" is provided in section 22(2)(aa) of the Act. It includes An Post and most banks, building societies and credit institutions. It does not, however, include a credit union. A credit union account, therefore, may not be used as a Political Donations Account.

The appropriate officer of each political party must notify the Standards Commission of the name and address of every accounting unit of the party together with the name of the responsible person or persons of the accounting unit. The Standards Commission writes to the appropriate officers of all political parties each year seeking details of its accounting units. As stated in part 6 the appropriate officer must now put procedures in place to ensure that he/she is notified of all donations exceeding €100 in value. Where, as part of these procedures, a donation exceeding €126.97 is notified by a branch or subsidiary organisation, the appropriate officer should check if he / she has already notified the Standards Commission that the particular branch/subsidiary organisation is an accounting unit. If not, the appropriate officer should provide the relevant details (as outlined above) to the Standards Commission.

Not later than 31 March each year, the responsible person of each accounting unit must furnish to the Standards Commission:

• a statement from the financial institution where the political donations account was opened specifying the transactions that have taken place in relation to the account during the preceding year, and
• a certificate, signed by him her, stating that all monetary donations received during the preceding year were lodged to the account and that all amounts debited from the account were used for political purposes, and
• a statutory declaration, signed by him/her, that, to the best of the responsible person's knowledge and belief, the certificate is correct in every material respect and that all reasonable action has been taken in order to satisfy him/herself as to the accuracy of the certificate. The Statutory Declaration must be witnessed by a person who is either a practising solicitor, a Commissioner for Oaths, a Peace Commissioner or a Notary Public. (The Certificate and Statutory Declaration is referred to hereafter as a Certificate of Monetary Donations.)

The statement from a financial institution and the Certificate of Monetary Donations in respect of the headquarters of a political party should be furnished to the Standards Commission by the appropriate officer of the party with the party's annual Donation Statement (see Part 8 below).

The Standards Commission will retain the statements from financial institutions and Certificates of Monetary Donations and will not disclose the contents thereof, unless ordered by a court to do so or where disclosure is required in connection with an investigation held by the Standards Commission.

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