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.

The cap is now in place and whatever safeguards it offers should remain in situ.

If Mr Cullen was merely testing the waters on how the public would react to his suggestion, then he should consider the waters tested, with a negative result.

The cap of €6,500 on corporate donations to political parties is a fact of life and it must remain so, despite Fianna Fáil’s current state of indigence reflected in their reported state of debt of €1.5 million.

They might recall the immortal, and infamous, words of their former leader Charles J Haughey to a struggling nation in the 1980s to the effect that belts should be tightened, and follow that advice.

Other worthwhile advice came from former Fianna Fáil chief fund-raiser Natasha Fennell, who believes that the cap has increased confidence in the openness and transparency of political parties and has done a lot to restore the credibility of the body politic in the wake of the scandals and tribunals.

That is not to suggest that all companies, or corporate bodies who donate to political parties do so with the intention of benefiting from a quid pro quo at some future date.

Many do so from a purely altruistic motive and without the expectation of political favour.

It is to eliminate those with insidious motives that a transparent system was put in place.

That system allows those who want to contribute to political parties because of a belief in or a commitment to our democratic process to do so in an honest manner.

The taxpayers, through the State, in any case give financial support to the parties to quite a substantial extent.

Last year, they were collectively subvented in this way to the tune of more than €10m, and, because of the method of disbursement, Fianna Fáil was the major beneficiary.

Given the revelations that have emerged over recent years of payments which procured the services of venal politicians, it would be injudicious to interfere with the current system of political donations.

The common good is served by the restraints that have been put in place and they exist to protect the good name of politicians as much as the public’s confidence in them.