NO statutory regulations govern political funding in the State, and political parties as well as individual politicians are so far free to seek their own contributions.
This situation will change if the 1994 Electoral Amendment Bill is eventually brought forward and passed into law, as was promised by the Government yesterday. The Bill, which was put on ice after the McKenna judgment 14 months ago because of concerns over its constitutionality, will provide State funding for political parties and will control the amount of money a party can spend at election time.
Under the proposals, contributions in excess of £4,000 to parties or £500 to individual TDs must be declared. It will also be illegal to accept anonymous donations of more than £100.
In the absence of legislation, parties and politicians are able to canvass whomever they wish for the money needed to fund elections at national and constituency level, and to run their headquarters and offices.
At present, the only State regulated funding involves the Party Leaders' Allowance of £600,000 per annum. Two thirds of this sum goes to the Opposition parties, with Fianna Fail benefiting from the largest share. Parties with fewer than seven deputies do not qualify for the allowance.
Fianna Fail's debt has fallen from approximately £4 million to less than £1 million as a result of an intensive fundraising drive under Mr Des Richardson; Fine Gael's debt has dropped from about £2 million to almost nothing under the organisation of the former Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications, Mr Michael Lowry; the Labour Party's debt is on the point of eradication, as is that of the Progressive Democrats.