19/12/08 - Report on Exchequer Funding received by Political Parties for 2007

Part 2 - Payment of Exchequer Funding in respect of 2007

In order to qualify for funding under the Act, 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. On the basis of the results of the 2002 general election, funding was paid up to 23 May 2007 to six qualified parties - Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, The Labour Party, Progressive Democrats, Green Party and Sinn Féin. The same six political parties are qualified to receive funding from 24 May 2007 on the basis of the results of the 2007 general election. In accordance with section 17(5) of the Act, the funding received is not subject to income tax.

Under section 17, each qualified party receives a payment of €126,974. They also receive a proportion of a fund which increases in line with general pay increases in the civil service. During 2007, there was one increase of 2% from 1 June 2007 under Towards 2016 applied to the fund. The fund currently stands at €4,709,769.60. The proportion of the fund payable to a qualified party is determined by expressing each qualified party's first preference votes as a proportion of the total first preference votes received by all qualified parties. Table 1 compares the qualified parties' vote at the 2007 and 2002 Dáil general elections.

Table 1 - Qualified parties' vote at the 2007 and 2002 Dáil general elections

During 2007, the proportion paid to qualified parties from the fund was altered to reflect the change in percentages of their first preference votes at the 2007 Dáil general election. Details of the payments made to the qualifying political parties in respect of 2007 are shown in Table 2.

Table 2 - Payments to qualified parties under the Act for 2007

Back to contents