Guidelines for Political Parties on Exchequer funding under the Electoral Acts.

5. Funding available to qualified parties

Pursuant to section 17 (1) of the 1997 Act, as amended, each qualified party is allocated a sum of €126,973 annually. In addition to this, each qualified party is allocated a proportion of a fund not exceeding €3,809,214. The allocation for each qualified party is determined by expressing the first preference votes received by the candidates of each qualified party at the last Dáil general election as a proportion of the total first preference votes received at the election by the candidates of all qualified parties. (The first preference votes of candidates of non-qualified parties and independent candidates are not taken into account.)

The fund will increase in line with general pay increases in the Civil Service.
Payments are exempt from income tax and are not reckoned in computing the income of a party for the purposes of the Income Tax Acts.

Appendix A, Table B, shows the first preference votes of candidates of each qualified party as a percentage of the total first preference votes obtained by candidates of all qualified parties.

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