Donations legislation needs to be changed to prevent Parties from hiding significant donations
Responding to the latest annual report from the Standards in Public Office
Commission,
Sinn Féin TD Arthur Morgan said the legislation covering
donations
needed to be changed to give an accurate reflection of what is
raised
by political parties.
Deputy Morgan said, “I don’t believe for
one minute that Fine Gael or the
PDs received no donations
whatsoever in the course of the last two years
and the Labour party
didn’t receive any donations in the last year – nor do
I
believe for one moment that Sinn Féin was the largest beneficiary of
donations
out of all political parties for the last two years. It is not
a
credible position and it calls into question the value of the process
that
is conducted in relation to the donations statements parties have to
submit
to the Standards in Public Office Commission.
“Unfortunately
because the levels under which political parties DO NOT have
to
publicly declare a donation are set so ridiculously high, at over €5000,
a
real picture does not emerge of what parties are receiving in donations
from
individuals and corporations. Are we seriously expected to believe
the
Joe Higgins' Socialist Party receives more money in donations than Fine
Gael,
the PDs and Labour put together?
“Sinn Féin is still the only
party to fully make our accounts available to
the general public.
We have nothing to hide in relation to where we
receive
our funding and how we spend it. We would call on other parties to
do
the same and not hide behind legislation, which allows you hide
significant
donations from the general public and to pretend you are not in
receipt
of donations at all.
“The legislation needs to be changed to
lower the level over which parties
are obliged to declare a donation.”
ENDS
Note: SIPO statement says, “In the case of Sinn Féin, all of
the donations
were made by party TDs, MPs or MLAs”