Parties make concerted effort to clean up politics

There is a determination shared by all the political parties to clean up politics. The most radical consequence of this to date was the announcement last Monday of far-reaching amendments to the Electoral Bill. These amendments will take political funding into the open, consigning the shady quid pro quo to the past.

Central to Mr Noel Dempsey's plan is the notion of a special political donations bank account. He will require that all public representatives, candidates at elections and third parties who receive political donations greater than £100 a year will have to open such accounts, through which political donations must be transacted.

The annual donation statements that public representatives already have to make will have to be accompanied by a bank statement and a certificate stating that all political donations were lodged into the special account and used for political purposes alone. This will end all confusion between personal and political funds.

The maximum limit on political donations is being set at £5,000 for political parties and £2,000 for individual public representatives and election candidates. This is the first time maximum limits have been set and they will limit inappropriate influence. To compensate for the inevitable drop in funding, the annual public funding allocated to political parties has been raised to £3 million per annum. The Leader's Allowance, which the parties receive annually from the Department of Finance, is to be raised to about £4.5 million. The parties will have to submit independently audited statements of expenditure to the Public Offices Commission annually.

When added to the existing legislation relating to disclosure of political donations, these measures will create a system of political funding that is both transparent and fair.

An editorial in this newspaper last Wednesday, echoing the stance of Fine Gael and Labour, expressed concern at the continued permission of donations from corporate bodies under this framework. These concerns may not be justified. The Fine Gael and Labour position, to simply ban corporate donations, is a red herring.

While it is a corporate donation if Joseph Bloggs's Company donates £50,000 to a political party, it is an individual donation if the managing director of that company, Joseph Bloggs, donates from his own bank account. Were either of these donations made immediately after that party granted the Joe Bloggs Company a major contract, the suspicion that the contract was linked to the donation would be equally valid in both cases. It does not matter that one is corporate and one is not.

The only alternative would be to rely completely upon State subvention for the funding of political parties. But this might give rise to serious constitutional difficulties. Those parties urging an end to corporate funding will be aware of this from the legal advice they received during the course of the 1997 Electoral Act.

Of course, the agenda of reform must extend to more than political funding. The Government Ethics Programme amounts to 10 pieces of legislation that will bring about root-and-branch reform of the political system. Ranging from the 1997 Electoral (Amendment) Act, which set limits on election expenses and ensures disclosure of donations, to the establishment of a Standard in Public Office Commission, which will have investigative powers.

Measures such as those contained in the Ethics Programme are necessary to cure the body politic from the perception of corruption. All political parties in Ireland today rely upon the unpaid work of countless citizens whose belief in the cause of their party drives them to offer time, energy and support. Ongoing tribunal revelations have alienated many of these people. Politics has let the people down and this Ethics Programme is about building back the trust.

My only regret, perhaps, is that this programme contains no strong provisions in the area of electoral personation, which, I suspect, from anecdotal evidence, is common. Perhaps there should be some type of auditing of the electoral register, or the absolute requirement to produce a passport or driving license at a polling station.