POLITICAL parties may receive £1 million a year less than they envisaged in State aid under the new Electoral Bill, if changes contemplated by the Minister for the Environment, Mr Howlin, are adopted by Government.
The Minister was instructed by Cabinet last month to review the terms of the Electoral Bill, in light of the Supreme Court judgment in the McKenna case, and to prepare new proposals for political funding. The Bill was to have cost £2.1 million a year in State funding, but this may now be cut to £1 million or less.
The Bill was designed to make political parties less dependent on donations from big business. It establishes a Dail and EU Parliament boundary commission, limits expenditure at election time, and requires the disclosure of substantial donations to parties and to individual politicians.
But the Supreme Court ruling in the divorce referendum that equal State funding, or none, should apply in areas of political contest has overturned its funding provisions, and elements of the Bill will have to be radically changed.
The new funding system was designed to replace the old `party leaders' allowances - at present costing £600,000 a year - while compensating for any shortfall in party income caused by a registration of substantial donations.
The Attorney General, Mr Dermot Gleeson, advised the Government that the Bill was seriously flawed, as was the existing system of party leaders' allowances. Sections of the Bill would have to be recast or abandoned.
If the cutbacks envisaged by Mr Howlin are approved by Government, the Progressive Democrats would lose about £50,000 on current annual funding, but Independent TDs and parties with less than seven members would gain.
Under the present system of party leaders' allowances, Fianna Fail gets £296,745; Fine Gael £104,804; the Labour Party £45,079 and the PDs £147,429. Three-quarters of the money goes to the opposition. But Independent TDs and parties with fewer than seven seats get nothing.
Although the funding proposal was the Labour Party's brainchild, Mr Howlin is under pressure from his own backbenchers to reduce the overall cost - set at £1 per vote - which was originally agreed when his party was in government with Fianna Fail. In order to do that, and to take account of the Supreme Court judgment, the Minister may propose an amalgamation of the old and new funding schemes.
The Supreme Court ruling has struck down the plan to pay an annual subvention to political parties, based on the number of elected TDs, because it would discriminate against unsuccessful and would-be candidates. Instead, a post-election payment may be made to TDs and to those candidates who saved their deposits.
The system of party leaders' allowances is now likely to be retained to make annual payments, based on actual Dail strength. The money is designed to pay for secretarial, research and administrative work.