Guidelines for Political Parties on Exchequer funding under the Electoral Acts (March 2009 edition).

5. Funding available to qualified parties

Pursuant to section 17(1) of the 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. This fund increases in line with general pay increases in the Civil Service. The allocation from the fund 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.

Payments are exempt from income tax and are not reckoned in computing the income of a party for the purpose of the Income Tax Acts.

The first preference votes secured by candidates of all political parties at the 2007 general election is set out in Appendix 2 to these guidelines. Appendix 2 also 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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