Greens push for end to political donors
The Greens said negotiations on a new Programme for Government would have to accelerate promises to reform the system.
Mr Cowen said yesterday he was prepared to conduct a review of the programme after next month’s elections.
Green Party chairman Dan Boyle said this would have to include the political donations issue.
While the Government has committed itself to establishing a new and stronger Electoral Commission, “the impetus needs greater priority”, he said.
“We believe it is a problem with the Irish political system... and Fianna Fáil is just as bad as the other parties on this issue.
“I think we will eventually see an end to corporate donations and for the Green Party that cannot happen soon enough.
“It will be one of the issues on the table in the negotiations for a new Programme for Government.”
The Standards in Public Office Commission confirmed yesterday it would ask Fianna Fáil to account for tens of thousands of euro in undisclosed donations, revealed by this newspaper.
They included two donations from Durkan New Homes (€15,658 in 2007 and €7,426 in 2006) which surpassed the €6,348 limit parties can accept from any donor in a single year.
Fianna Fáil last night insisted it had not breached the Electoral Act in accepting any of the donations in question.
“The [Irish Examiner] report does not take account of the clear distinction in the legislation between a donation made to a political party and its candidates – both of which are treated as separate entities under the Electoral Acts. As separate entities, both have separate reporting obligations,” the party said in a statement.
However, SIPO said it had produced clear, legally binding guidelines in December 2006, which put responsibility on party headquarters to identify and add up all payments.
The Electoral Act 1997 states: “Where a person makes more than one donation in the same year to the same political party, member of either House of the Oireachtas or representative in the European Parliament, or in relation to the same Dáil, Seanad or European election to the same candidate, all such donations shall... be aggregated and treated as a single donation.”
Durkan New Homes stood by the figures. “Durkan New Homes have complied in full with all our legal obligations in both making and disclosing political donations,” it said.
The controversy came as Mr Cowen conceded the programme worked out between Fianna Fáil and the Greens in 2007 would be renegotiated after the June 5 elections.
The Greens had demanded such a review over the weekend in what was seen as another bid to distance themselves from the policies of their government partners ahead of the election.
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