TRADE UNION contributions to Labour would be covered by legislation on corporate donations it planned to introduce in government, party leader Eamon Gilmore said yesterday. “The same law would apply to trade unions as everybody else,” he said.
Mr Gilmore said Labour was proposing that maximum individual contributions to a party be reduced from €6,500 to €2,500, while cumulative contributions over €1,500 would be declarable.
The cap on donations to individual candidates should be reduced from €2,500 to €1,000.
Renewing his call for an early general election, he said his party would also introduce legislation on climate change. Therefore, he added, there was no need to delay the general election so that the Green Party could process legislation on the same issues.
“We are saying very clearly that we want this election to take place quickly,” he said. “It is in the interest of the country that it happen as soon as possible after Christmas.”
Mr Gilmore was introducing four new candidates selected to contest the general election: barrister Lorraine Higgins, who joins Colm Keaveney in Galway East; farmer and barrister Michael McNamara, Clare; journalist John Whelan, Laois-Offaly, and Senator Ivana Bacik, who joins Mr Gilmore in Dún Laoghaire.