Sir, - The position regarding disclosure of political donations may need to be clarified in light of the suggestion by your correspondent A. Leavy (June 8th) that, as a means of avoiding political donations having to be disclosed, a person can make several donations each of which is below the disclosure thresholds.
The law (Electoral Acts of 1997 and 1998) is quite clear in requiring that political parties, TDs, Senators and MEPs must aggregate the values of all donations received by them from the same donor in a calendar year. If the total value exceeds £500 in the case of an individual politician or £4,000 in the case of a political party, the donations must be disclosed in a statement which is furnished annually by the recipient to the Public Offices Commission.
These statements are on display at the Commission's office and may be inspected and copied by members of the public. A summary of the statements is on the commission's website, www.irlgov.ie/poc. It is worth pointing out that donations include money, property, goods or services.
In addition, a person who makes separate donations to a political party and members of that party with a total value greater than £4,000 in a calendar year is required by law to furnish a statement to the Commission showing details of the donations. Such statements are put on public display. This is regardless of whether or not the recipients of the donations are also required to furnish a statement in relation to the donations.
Finally, political parties, TDs, senators and MEPs are not allowed to accept "anonymous" donations valued at more than £100. These are donations where the name and address of the donor is not known by the intended recipient. If such a donation is received, it, or its value, must be surrendered to the Commission. - Yours, etc.,
Brian Allen, Commission Secretary, Public Offices Commission, 18 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2.