Political donations - Government should leave cap in place

The recent effort by Minister for the Environment Martin Cullen to extend the electoral begging bowl by suggesting that the cap on corporate donations be scrapped was viewed with a large measure of scepticism by the public.

The cap was put in place by Mr Cullen’s predecessor Noel Dempsey for very good reasons, namely to try to reassure the public that huge political donations could not buy favours.

The measure was adopted in the wake of revelations of corporate donations to politicians of various shades in return for special consideration, largely in the area of planning, which came to light only because of the plethora of expensive tribunals they spawned.