09/06/09 - Donation Statements furnished by Political Parties for 2008

Part 2 - Disclosure of donations by the appropriate officers of political parties

A political party is defined in the Act as a party registered in the Register of Political Parties to contest a Dáil or European Parliament election. Section 71 of the Act provides that each such political party must appoint an appropriate officer for the purposes of furnishing the party's Donation Statement and carrying out certain duties provided for in the Act. Where no appropriate officer stands appointed at any given time, the leader of the party is deemed to be the appropriate officer.

Section 24(1)(b) of the Act provides that the appropriate officer of a political party must furnish a Donation Statement to the Standards Commission not later than 31 March every year. The Donation Statement must show, in relation to the preceding calendar year, whether or not, during that year, the party received any donations exceeding €5,078.95 in value. Section 22(2)(d) of the Act provides that the values of donations received from the same person in the same year must be aggregated and, if the total value exceeds €5,078.95, the donations must be disclosed. Where a donation in excess of €5,078.95 has been received, the actual value and nature (i.e., cheque, cash or property/goods) of the donation must be stated together with the name, address and a description of the donor (i.e., whether the donor is an individual, company, etc). In accordance with section 24(3) of the Act, the Donation Statement must be accompanied by a Statutory Declaration to the effect that the Donation Statement is correct in every material respect and that all reasonable action has been taken by the appropriate officer in order to be satisfied as to its accuracy.

In accordance with Section 22(2)(a) of the Act, a donation to a political party means any contribution given for political purposes by any person. A person means an individual, a body corporate or an unincorporated body of persons.

A donation can include:

1. a donation of money;
2. a donation of property or goods;
3. the free use of property or goods;
4. a free supply of services;
5. the difference between the commercial price and the (lower) price charged for property, goods or services; (this can include a loan provided to a political party by a financial institution at terms and conditions which are more favourable than that provided by the financial institution to other individuals. It can also includes loans provided by persons other than financial institutions. Details of the Standards Commission's position with regard to the issuing and repayment of loans are set out in Part 4 of its guidelines for political parties on donations and prohibited donations which were published in December 2006).
6. the net value of a person's contribution to a fund-raising event

Donations received from companies and their subsidiaries

During 2008 the Standards Commission was required to consider the issue of donations from connected companies. A donation is defined in section 22(2) of the Act as a contribution given for political purposes by any person. A person is defined in section 2 of the Act as including an individual, a body corporate or an unincorporated body of persons. A body corporate and any of its subsidiaries are deemed to be the one person. The Act does not, however, provide a definition of a subsidiary of a body corporate. The Standards Commission received legal advice to the effect that the word subsidiary as used in the definition of the term person in section 2 of the Act should be construed by reference to the definition given to that word by section 155 of the Companies Acts. It wrote to the appropriate officers of each political party informing them of this advice and the meaning which should now be applied to the word subsidiary for the purposes of the Act.

Contributions by companies to fund-raising events

The definition of a donation includes the net value of a contribution to a fund-raising event. The costs of holding a fund-raising event are deducted from the proceeds of the event for the purposes of calculating the net value of each person's contribution to the event. While a political party must disclose the net value of a company's contribution to a fund-raising event, the company itself must, in accordance with section 26 of the Act, provide details of the gross value of its contribution to a fund-raising event in the annual report/return which it is required to furnish to the Companies Registration Office (CRO). The Donation Statement furnished by a political party is in respect of the previous calendar year. In many cases the return/report furnished by a company to the CRO is not in respect of a particular calendar year. There can be a difference, therefore, between the donations disclosed by a political party on its Donation Statement and the corresponding donations disclosed by a company on its annual return/report to the CRO.

Fund-raising events

Where a political party (including a branch of a political party) organises a fund-raising event on behalf of a TD, Senator, MEP or candidate at an election and the proceeds of the event are passed to him/her, the party is regarded as an intermediary accepting donations on the person's behalf. The contributions to the event are deemed to have been made to the TD, Senator, MEP or candidate concerned and he/she is responsible for disclosing the donations if this is required. If, however, the funds are retained by the party, the contributions to the event are deemed to have been made to the party.

Donations received by individual members of the party

Section 22(2)(c) of the Act provides that where a donation is made to a TD, Senator or MEP and is passed on to a political party and a written acknowledgement of the donation is received from the party, the donation will be deemed to have been made to the party. Section 22(2)(c)(i) of the Act provides, however, that where a donation is made to a candidate of the party at a local election or to a member of the party who is a member of a local authority the donation is deemed to be a donation to the party. This provision has not been amended to take account of the fact that candidates at local elections and members of local authorities have their own disclosure requirements under the Local Elections (Disclosure of Donations and Expenditure) Act 1999, as amended. The Standards Commission regards a donation which is given to a candidate at a local election or a member of a local authority as having been made to a political party only if the candidate or member concerned has passed the donation to the party and has received a written acknowledgement from the party that it has accepted the donation. Political parties are not, therefore, required to account for donations which have been received by TDs, Senators, MEPs, Members of local authorities or candidates at elections and which have not been passed on to the party.

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