16/05/06 - Donation Statements furnished by political parties for 2005

Part 4 Political Donations Accounts

Section 23B(1) of the Act provides that if a political party receives a monetary donation in excess of €126.97 it must open and maintain an account in a financial institution in the State and must lodge that donation and any further monetary donations, of whatever value, to that account. This requirement commenced with effect from 1 January 2002.

In accordance with section 23B(3), a Donation Statement/Statutory Declaration furnished to the Standards Commission by a political party, which was required to open a political donations account, must be accompanied by a statement provided by the financial institution in which the account was opened. The statement from the financial institution must specify all transactions that have taken place in relation to the account during the year to which the Donation Statement/Statutory Declaration relates.

The Donation Statement/Statutory Declaration must also be accompanied by a Certificate of Monetary Donations on which the appropriate officer confirms that all monetary donations received during the year were lodged to the account and that all amounts debited from the account were used for political purposes. The Certificate is accompanied by a separate Statutory Declaration. The Standards Commission produced a Certificate of Monetary Donations / Statutory Declaration form (05/PP/CMD) for use in respect of the 2005 calendar year. The form was enclosed with the Donation Statement/Statutory Declaration form which issued to appropriate officers of political parties on 18 January 2006.

The Standards Commission was conscious of the fact that the political donations accounts of some of the smaller political parties might not have been active during 2005. Accordingly, a political party whose political donations account was not active during 2005 was required only to state this on the Certificate of Monetary Donations/Statutory Declaration form and was not required to complete the Statutory Declaration or to forward a copy of a bank statement for 2005.

A Certificate of Monetary Donations/Statutory Declaration form was received from 12 of the 13 political parties. A form was not received from The Workers Party. On the basis that a Certificate of Monetary Donations form has never been received from this party (either from its Head Office or from an accounting unit - see Part 5 below), the Standards Commission assumes that The Workers Party has not received a monetary donation exceeding €126.97 in value since the commencement, on 1 January 2002, of these provisions of the legislation.

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