Sir, - The pre-Christmas column by David Andrews on political funding (The Irish Times, December 23rd) was a pure case of party political special pleading.
Mr Andrews was until recently a member of a Government which promised much by way of political reforms ever since the day of its election in 1997. In practice, of course, it has actually failed to enact a single item of a reform package in its period of office so far.
Now, to add insult to injury, it has the effrontery to publish a Bill which will have the result of undoing the one Labour reform which was likely to have the longest-term effect on eliminating political corruption, namely the limits on election spending.
The 1997 Act set quite reasonable limits on spending and allowed an independent commission headed by the Ombudsman the right to adjust these in line with inflation and to create fair rules for deciding on how the limits were to be implemented.
These rules have evolved as by-elections indicated areas of ambiguity. And, as Mr Andrews points out, even Labour, the original promoters of the limits, found itself in difficulties on some fine points of the law.
Nonetheless, the rules were moving towards a clear level playing-field that offered a reasonable chance of a general election fought by all parties on fair terms, reducing the influence of cash and influence-peddling through political donations.
Now Fianna Fail proposes to upend all that and to effectively throw out the controls on spending by vastly increasing the limit imposed in the 1997 Act to levels that offer a distinct advantage to itself.
Fianna Fail, through this new Bill, is allowing itself to spend an extra £900,000 in the next general election. This shows that the values of Lawlorism remain predominant in Bertie Ahern's Party and shows too how fundamentally incorrigible and immune to reform that party is now and seems ever to be. - Yours, etc.,
Cllr Joan Burton, Vice-Chair, Labour Party General Council, Old Cabra Road, Dublin 7.