Annual Report 2008

Funding under the Electoral Acts

In order to qualify for funding under the Electoral Acts, a political party must be included in the Register of Political Parties and must have obtained at least 2% of the first preference votes at the last Dáil general election. Funding was paid to six qualified parties during 2008 on the basis of the results of the 2007 general election. The funding is not subject to income tax.

Each qualified political party is paid a basic amount of €126,973 annually. In addition each qualified political party is also entitled to a share of an annual sum which was originally set at €3.8m and which increases in line with general pay increases in the civil service. The share of the fund payable to a qualified political party is determined by expressing the first preference votes of the qualified party as a percentage of the total first preference votes received by all qualified political parties.

During 2008, an increase of 2.5% under Towards 2016 was applied to the fund with effect from 1 March 2008. A further increase of 2.5% under Towards 2016 was applied from 1 September 2008. At 31 December 2008, the fund stood at €4,948,201. When the basic payments of €126,973, payable to each of the six qualified parties, are added to the fund, the total amount payable to qualified political parties under the Electoral Acts at 31 December 2008 is €5,710,044. The total funding actually received by qualified political parties under the Electoral Acts for 2008 was €5,609,961. The difference is accounted for by the fact that the increased amounts were payable for part of 2008 only.

The Electoral Acts require that funding received by a qualified political party must be applied to " the general conduct and management of the party's affairs and the lawful pursuit by it of any of its objectives and, without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, any or all of the following purposes -

• general administration of the party;
• research, education and training;
• policy formulation;
• co-ordination of the activities of branches and party members."

The funding is also deemed to include provision in respect of the participation of women and young persons in political activity. The funding cannot be used to recoup election or referendum expenses.

Each qualified political party is required to account annually to the Standards Commission in respect of its expenditure of funding received during the preceding year. The Exchequer Expenditure Statement must be audited by a public auditor and a copy of the auditor's report must be furnished to the Standards Commission with the Statement. The Standards Commission requests that Exchequer Expenditure Statements and auditors' reports should be furnished by 31 March each year. Where a qualified political party has not, by 30 April in any year, furnished an Exchequer Expenditure Statement and auditor's report to the Standards Commission in respect of the preceding year, further payments of the funding will be suspended until such time as the Statement and auditor's report are received.

The Exchequer Expenditure Statements for 2008 detail the amount of funding received by each qualified political party in respect of 2008 as well as any funding unspent and brought forward from 2007. The Exchequer Expenditure Statements also give details under the above headings of how the funding was spent. The Standards Commission furnished a report to the Chairman of Dáil Éireann on 23 June 2009 providing details of the funding received under the Electoral Acts by qualified political parties in respect of 2008 and how this funding was applied. The Exchequer Expenditure Statements and auditors' reports were laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas on the same day and were made available for public inspection and copying. The report is available on the website of the Standards Commission.

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