The Labour Party has criticised proposals to regulate corporate donations expected to be published by the Government tomorrow.
Party leader Mr Ruairi Quinn said the capping of donations to politicians and political parties at £5,000 was "too little too late".
The amendments to the Electoral Bill are due to be announced tomorrow and will be debated next Thursday in the Seanad.
The Government's insistence, said Mr Quinn, on retaining corporate donations, and its failure to reduce the disclosure limits for donations, indicated its determination that the issue of political funding remained "furtive and secretive".
The Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, said that for the first time the amount of money given to a political party, an individual political group or campaign group, would be limited.
"We intend that anybody who would receive a donation would have to open a particular account for that, that account would have to be returned to the Public Offices Commission. We intend to try and make the system as open and transparent as possible," Mr Dempsey said.
Mr Quinn said the Taoiseach Mr Ahern, had been at the heart of his Government's reluctance to accept that the relationship between business and politics should be cleaned up.
"As a result, today's muted proposals only go some of the way to addressing the real issue - the public perception that the relationship between business and politics is tainted."
Mr Quinn said it was astonishing that it had been necessary to wait over a year for these proposals. In the meantime, Fianna Fail had "no doubt filled the coffers", he said.
However, the party's general secretary, Mr Martin Mackin, told The Irish Times in April that Fianna Fail had raised less in large donations in 2000 than in any year since the requirement to declare donations of over £5,000 began in 1997.
The party released the figures after the Taoiseach's offer in the Dail to disclose information on party fundraising.
Mr Ahern said he was doing this in an attempt to dismiss the suggestion that he was delaying legislation to limit private funding of political parties because he and his party "have been collecting enormous amounts of money".
Mr Quinn said there was also no sign of the Government backing down on its proposals to increase, by up to 50 per cent, the amount a candidate could spend on a general election campaign. This measure would allow Fianna Fail to spend up to £1 million extra at the next general election, Mr Quinn said.