Annual Report 2007

Accounting Units of political parties

An "accounting unit" of a political party is a branch or other subsidiary organisation of the party, which in any particular year, receives a donation, the value of which exceeds €126.97. The appropriate officer of a political party is required to provide the Standards Commission with the name and address of each accounting unit of the party, including the name of its "responsible person". (The responsible person is the treasurer or any other person responsible for dealing with donations to the unit.)

During 2007, the Standards Commission wrote to 166 accounting units which were identified by the relevant political parties (158 accounting units had been written to in 2006). 79 accounting units furnished the required statutory documentation by the statutory deadline of 31 March 2007. 87 accounting units failed to furnish their statutory documentation on time. In its annual report for 2006 the Standards Commission set out a number of difficulties it had encountered in supervising these provisions of the legislation. The same difficulties were encountered during 2007.

Back to contents