The Government is “fully committed” to developing anti-corruption legislation which reflects the recommendations of both the Mahon tribunal and an EU anti-corruption body, Minister for Justice Alan Shatter has said.
Mr Shatter confirmed he planned to publish the heads of a new corruption Bill this year.
"This will build on the work already done in the Criminal Justice Act 2011 and make it even clearer that there is no tolerance for white collar crime of any sort in Ireland," he said.
Mr Shatter said the Bill would provide for the disclosure of expenditure and donations at referendum campaigns, and will provide for the extension of the spending limit period that applies at Presidential, Dáil, European Parliament and local elections.
He was speaking after the Government was urged by an EU body to take “more decisive and expeditious action” to ensure effective sanctions against violations of political funding rules.
Mr Shatter published the evaluation by the Greco group of states against corruption, a Council of Europe body, of how Ireland has implemented measures to tackle corruption under EU rules.
Irish authorities last year responded to recommendations made by the body in 2009, outlining measures taken here to deal with corruption and transparency in party funding.
In its latest report, the body noted the currently “dispersed” legislation on political finances here. It said rules on the funding of political parties could only be strengthened if the various pieces of legislation were consolidated.
It also said more needed to be done on its recommendation that the final accounts of a political party be consolidated with those of the lower echelons of the organisation, as well as with those of third parties.
“Greco is of the firm view that full transparency of party accounts necessarily requires the disclosure of financial information concerning the entities that come within the party’s sphere of activity; consolidation of party accounts can only facilitate greater transparency for citizens in knowing from which sources political parties receive their income and in which way they spend their money.”
Greco noted the Government’s 2011 Bill on political funding proposed new requirements for the accounting and auditing obligations of political parties. The Government has been invited to submit further information on its measures to address corruption by June of next year.
The Mahon tribunal report published last week expressed concern that the two Acts governing political funding suffered from “several deficiencies” which adversely affected their ability to adequately control money in politics and the “corruption risks which it poses”.
It made a number of recommendations in this area.