Annual Report 2004

Electoral Acts

The Electoral Act 1997 provides a framework for disclosure and limiting of political donations made to TDs, Senators, MEPs, political parties and candidates at elections. It also regulates spending by political parties and candidates at Dáil, Seanad, European Parliament and presidential elections. It provides for reimbursement of election expenses to qualified candidates and allows for State financing of political parties (dealt with in Chapter 3).

As a result of early experience of operating the legislation on the part of the former Public Offices Commission, the need for amendments in a number of respects was identified. This was achieved by the enactment of the Electoral (Amendment) Act 1998. The Electoral (Amendment) Act 2001 brought about further changes, including the introduction of limits on the values of donations which could be accepted and a prohibition on acceptance of foreign donations. The 2001 Act also sets down rules covering the registration and funding of third parties involved in political activity and provides for the recording of monetary donations received by branches of political parties. In 2002, the legislation was amended on two further occasions. On the eve of the Dáil general election, the Electoral (Amendment) Act 2002 clarified what is to be regarded as a donation by a political party to its candidates. After the election, the Electoral (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 2002 put back the date by which election expenses statements were required to be furnished to the Standards Commission until such time as proceedings in the Supreme Court, on the question of what constituted election expenses, had been finalised. To give effect to the judgment of the Supreme Court in that case, the Electoral (Amendment) Act 2004 was enacted. Section 33 of the 2004 Act is discussed later in this report.

During 2004, the Standards Commission supervised compliance with the above legislation across its wide body of clients who have statutory obligations to discharge. These included TDs, Senators, MEPs, political parties, third parties, accounting units of political parties and candidates at the European Parliament and presidential elections. Unlike the position under the Ethics Acts, where disclosure of certain of the information obtained under that legislation is prohibited, the vast bulk of the material furnished to the Standards Commission under the Electoral Acts is in the public domain in the form of reports to the Ceann Comhairle which are laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas. The material is also made available to the public for inspection and copying, including, in summary form, on the website of the Standards Commission. In compliance with the terms of the legislation, details of bank accounts and certificates of monetary donations are not published. The Standards Commission considers it to be of the utmost importance that information furnished to it under the Electoral Acts should be widely available. Access to the material will be further improved during 2005 when upgrading of the Standards Commission website is expected to be completed.

Information from various statutory returns made to the Standards Commission in respect of 2003 and 2004 is set out in tabular form in Appendix 1 to this report.

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