26/06/07 - Donation Statements furnished by political parties for 2006

Part 1 - Introduction

This report relates to Donation Statements/Statutory Declarations, in respect of 2006, furnished to the Standards Commission by political parties pursuant to section 24(1)(a) of the Electoral Act 1997, as amended.

Section 4(1) of the Act requires the Standards Commission to consider every statement and notification furnished to it in relation to political donations and where it considers it appropriate to do so, to furnish a report in writing to the Chairman of Dáil Éireann (Ceann Comhairle) on any matter arising.

It is noteworthy that neither Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, nor the Progressive Democrats reported any disclosable donations for 2006, a year preceding a long-awaited general election year. This was the first year in which Fianna Fáil produced such a nil return; Fine Gael has produced a nil return since 2001; the Labour Party did so in 2004 and 2005 while the Progressive Democrats have produced a nil return since 2003. It is the view of the Standards Commission that, in the light of this pattern of disclosure, the legislation governing donations to political parties requires urgent review.

In the calendar year prior to the 2002 General Election, donations disclosed by the parties amounted to almost seven times the 2006 figure. While it is true that exchequer funding of political parties has increased hugely since 2001 - over €13.5 million was spent in 2006 - this exchequer funding cannot be used for election purposes.

It is not known, therefore, how the parties financed their election campaigns in 2007, nor are the parties obliged to disclose the source of this funding. It is clear to the Standards Commission that parties are soliciting donations below the disclosure threshold. Monitoring of expenditure on election campaigns is also limited to expenditure on resources or material used during the election period - which runs from the date of dissolution of Dáil Éireann to polling day.

The Standards Commission believes that there is a strong case to be made for a new approach to the general funding of political parties, for increased transparency in such funding and for greater scrutiny of political party expenditure. In 2003 the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe adopted a recommendation (Rec (2003) 4) on common rules against corruption in the funding of political parties and electoral campaigns. As part of this, the Council approved a set of common rules which it recommended that member states should adopt in their national legal systems. While many of the rules are already provided for in our law, those which need to be implemented include recommendations that member states should require political parties to keep proper books and accounts, that these accounts should specify all donations received by a political party and identification of donors in the case of donations over a certain value and that party accounts must be presented at least annually to an independent authority.

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