Madam, - The figures released by the Institute of Advertising Practitioners in Ireland in relation to the amount spent by the major players in the recent Lisbon Treaty campaign are astonishing.
Declan Ganley's Libertas's spend of €912,753 on the No campaign was greater than the total spend on the Yes campaign which included all the main political parties.
Mr Ganley refuses to reveal the sources of finance for his campaign. At the same time each of the political parties must reveal their sources.
Indeed the whole purpose of our ethics code is to ensure that public representatives are not in the pockets of wealthy business people who may have an agenda which is not in the country's interest.
The majority of our tribunals are in existence to establish whether wealthy businessmen made corrupt contributions to politicians to influence planning or policy decisions in their favour.
It is unacceptable that a single wealthy individual whose business interests are largely based outside this country should be able to use his wealth to influence the outcome of a constitutional referendum in Ireland and at the same time not have to disclose the source of his funding.
It is time Mr Ganley came clean, revealed the reason for his sudden appearance on the Irish political scene, revealed the reasons for his colossal expenditure on opposing the Lisbon Treaty and disclosed the sources of his funding.
By the same token it is time to conduct a root and branch overhaul of our ethics legislation.
The Standards in Public Office Commission in its annual report declared its frustration with the present complex and inadequate legislation which allows political donations under €5,078 to remain undeclared and which likewise allows monies spent prior to the calling of an election to remain undeclared.
Moreover, the funding of third-party political bodies like Mr Ganley's Libertas is subject to even less statutory scrutiny than the funding of political parties.
It is now time for all political parties and all corporate and individual activists to be subjected to full financial scrutiny in the interests of democracy. - Yours, etc,
JOE COSTELLO TD, Labour Party Spokesperson on Europe, Dáil Éireann, Dublin 2.