Annual Report 2007

Introduction by the Chairman

2007 was a busy year for the Standards in Public Office Commission with much activity both in the run up to and following the general election in May 2007. The role of the Standards Commission in the Dáil and Seanad general elections is to oversee the relevant provisions of the Electoral Act 1997, as amended, (the Electoral Acts) and to provide advice and guidance to the candidates and election agents. The Electoral Acts provide for the disclosure of expenditure by political parties and candidates during the election period and also for disclosure of donations by unsuccessful candidates. In addition, the usual disclosure regime applies for members of the Dáil and Seanad and for political parties. On the face of it, therefore, at least in a general election year, it should be possible for each citizen to have a clear picture of election spending by each candidate and party and also a clear indication of the sources for such funding. For various reasons, however, this is not the case. If the intention of the legislation is to provide for transparency and openness in relation to party funding and expenditure, then it is not achieving this aim.

Frequent calls have been made by the Standards Commission for changes to both the Electoral and Ethics legislation; the Standards Commission dedicated a chapter of its Annual Report for 2006 to this issue. It was heartening, therefore, to detect signs of a willingness to change both sets of legislation as 2007 drew to a close. In recognition of the high importance placed by the Standards Commission on its recommended changes to the legislation, an update on the changes which it requested are also set out in a separate chapter of this report. The Standards Commission feels that this format is beneficial as it helps to focus on the type of changes which the Standards Commission feels is necessary.

The Standards Commission reported in December on its oversight of the 2007 Dáil general election and noted that expenditure of €11.08M had been reported to it - this being the amount expended on goods and services used during the brief election period. That report also noted that donations of €531K had been disclosed by unsuccessful candidates at that election. In addition, donations totalling €1,122K were disclosed by political parties and by members of the Oireachtas as having been received during 2007.

The Standards Commission has repeatedly pointed out that this means that it is not known, therefore, how the parties financed their election campaigns in 2007 and that there is no obligation on political parties 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, and so a great deal of expenditure by parties and candidates before the commencement of the election period goes unaccounted for. In its report on the Dáil general election, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) recommended that consideration should be given to extending the election period, and once the election is called, "to undertake a backward review of accounts according to the established reporting timeframe".  ODIHR is an independent and highly respected election monitoring organisation.

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, 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.

The Standards Commission welcomes the proposal to establish an independent Electoral Commission and it trusts that its suggestions for change will be given careful consideration in any accompanying amendments to the Electoral Acts.

There were also positive indications towards the end of the year that some of the Standards Commission's suggested amendments to the Ethics legislation were being considered by the government. The members of the Standards Commission welcomed this development.

Mr Liam Kavanagh, whose term drew to a close in December 2007, was appointed as ordinary member of the first Standards in Public Office Commission in December 2001 for a 6 year term. He brought to the Standards Commission a wealth of experience in Irish and European politics, coupled with a keen sense of public service values. His contributions were always much appreciated and he will be missed by all of his colleagues. He was replaced as ordinary member by Mr Michael Smith who has also had a distinguished career in Irish politics. I would like to extend a warm welcome to Mr Smith and I look forward to working with him.

I am very pleased to have been re-appointed for a second term as chairperson of the Standards Commission, and I look forward to working with my fellow commissioners and with the secretary David Waddell and the staff of the secretariat who served us extremely well during the year 2007.

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