Parties to be referred to gardaí for failing to disclose donations

The Standards in Public Office Commission is to refer The Workers Party, The Socialist Workers Party and the People Before Profit Alliance to the gardaí for failing to disclose any donations made to them.

Figures released by the commission show donations worth just over €33,000 were made to political parties last year.

Under the legislation parties must disclose donations of more than €5,000.

New rules which came into force in January have reduced that to €1,500.

The figures published today show that neither Fine Gael, Labour or Fianna Fail received any donations over €5,000 last year.

Any party that fails to furnish details to the commission faces a fine of over €1,000 and an addition penalty of €126 per day can be imposed for every day the information is outstanding.