Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There is a good deal to say about this legislation. Although it is a succinct and short tranche of legislation, it is important in what it contains. It is equally important in what it does not contain and what it ought to contain. There are certain issues I wish to highlight in my contribution.

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Hayes, for taking this debate. I take this opportunity to wish him the very best of luck in his exploits in the coming months in respect of his very courageous decision to put his name forward to contest the European elections in May. If he is successful in his endeavour, he will immediately find that the European Parliament is a far more transparent and open House than the Dáil. Perhaps he will bring some of the experiences he gleans there back to the Oireachtas, sharing his knowledge of some of the transparency measures that have been introduced in recent years, particularly in regard to expenses and supports for Members of the European Parliament. These measures are in stark contrast to practices in this and the Upper House.

The purpose of this legislation is twofold. First, it proposes a reduction in the party leaders' allowance and the allowance to Independent Members, which come under the same heading. It also provides for a change in the title of this allowance, which is quite immaterial. Second, it proposes the abolition of the severance payment to Ministers and Ministers of State when they cease to hold office. I support these measures, which are important and timely in the context of the economic crisis we have endured for five years. Deputy Róisín Shortall and I chose not to take the severance payment to which we were entitled when we left ministerial office. As Deputy John Paul Phelan pointed out, that option was available to others but they chose instead to walk away with very substantial payments which were funded by Irish taxpayers. In many cases, these payments clearly were not warranted, but Members of this House considered it appropriate to accept them. It is right and proper that these payments be discontinued.

Let us be clear, however, that this Bill does nor represent radical political reform. It does not represent radical reform of the payments available to politicians in this State. It does nor represent radical reform in terms of how we deal with, spend and respect taxpayers' money. It does absolutely nothing to enhance transparency regarding the expenditure of taxpayers' moneys and nothing to ensure fairness in the political system. In fact, it does quite the contrary, as several speakers have observed. The Bill enshrines and copperfastens the dominance of certain political parties and the abuse of taxpayers' money. It is most unfortunate.

These provisions are completely out of kilter with what my party - of which I am still a member, although I have been expelled from the parliamentary party - committed to in its election manifesto in 2011 and in the New Politics document we published in 2010. This is not just disappointing, it is a betrayal of the trust that was placed in us at the last election and the very clear mandate we received from the electorate to introduce a new type of politics and a new fairness, transparency and openness in the political system and, most importantly, to restore trust in the Irish democratic process. This Bill does nothing to achieve any of those goals. Indeed, it entrenches the very antithesis of those goals.

When I went forward for election to the Dáil for the second time in 2011, I stood very proudly under the banner of my party's commitment to new politics. That commitment was not simply rhetoric or mere words. We had a clearly articulated document which we promoted and sold to voters, the contents of which, as we convinced the public, we were determined to implement in full when in government. I was proud that we committed to radical political reform and to enhancing and developing a genuine sense of transparency in our political system. I was proud to be associated with the concept of a new politics and to stand over the promise by the then Leader of the Opposition to introduce a democratic revolution in the lifetime of a new Government led by Fine Gael. The question I and all members of my party in this House must ask ourselves now is what happened to that promise and why are we so reluctant to fulfil it.

I have a range of facts and figures to hand which are very relevant to this legislation. I will begin, however, with a very explicit commitment in the New Politics document my party published in 2010, as follows: "We will publish annual audited accounts for the Fine Gael Party on the web from 2010". This commitment was not contingent on our going into government. It was a commitment by the party to the people. That commitment has not been met and no audited accounts have been published. This is a great disappointment and I hope it can and will be addressed by the party.

Unfortunately, a failure to provide audited party accounts is not unique to Fine Gael. According to the extensive research I have undertaken, Fianna Fáil has never published any audited accounts. The Labour Party, on the other hand, does publish accounts and we can glean some useful information from them. We discover, for example, that average expenditure on salaries and pensions has increased in recent years. This happened at a time of cutbacks in both the public and private sectors. It was a period during which he Government was obliged to introduce substantial reductions in pay, pensions and benefits throughout the country, and rightly so. The Labour Party, during this period, increased the average pay for staff in its party headquarters from €53,190 to €55,698. There is no breakdown of the number of people receiving a pension from direct expenditure.

We in this House like to talk about leading by example and about transparency in every other facet of Irish society. We have seen a great deal of grandstanding and a lot of people speaking from a shaky high moral ground in recent weeks, particularly in respect of certain charities and so on. At the same time, it seems political parties, which are funded almost exclusively by taxpayers, are actually increasing expenditure from the increased moneys they receive from the Exchequer. Sinn Féin is another party which claims to publish all its financial accounts. In fact, it has only published accounts up to 2009 on its website. There has been nothing since and no information is provided on the numbers employed by the party. This is the level of transparency we are dealing with across all political parties in the State. It makes for disappointing reading. It certainly is not indicative of the type of openness and honesty to which we are supposedly committed. In some respects, what we are seeing is quite disingenuous.

This issue is very relevant in the context of the ongoing dispute regarding the interpretation of the Electoral (Amendment) (Political Funding) Act 2012.

I hope most Members are aware that a dispute erupted between the chairman of the Standards in Public Office Commission, SIPO, and the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government just prior to Christmas when the latter refused to implement a recommendation put forward by the former to the effect that a breakdown of the accounts of the various organs and units of party organisations across the State should be published. In some parties those organs and units are knows as branches, while in others they are known as cumainn. Those in Government gave a clear commitment on entering office that they would facilitate full transparency in respect of the accounts of political parties. However, one Government Minister is refusing to sign an order to give effect to that commitment and to the recommendation made by the SIPO. As a result, there is a stand-off. That is completely unacceptable. The vast majority of the fund-raising carried out by political parties is done by individual branches throughout the country. This is an obvious way for parties to avoid transparency because such branches are not accountable to the SIPO and are not subject to the full rigours of the legislation approved by this House in 2012. That is extraordinary. It is a breach of pre-election commitment and it compromises, to a substantial degree, the independence of the SIPO, which is being constrained in the execution of its independent statutory duties by a Minister who does not want to co-operate with it. That is worrying.

I wish to deal now with the Exchequer funding the parties receive. The figure for such funding for Fine Gael in 2012 was €2.281 million. This represented an increase of €107,000 over the figure for 2011 which was €2.173 million. The leader's allowance funding received in 2012 was €2.678 million. Again, this represented an increase of €99,000 on the figure for 2011. The Labour Party received Exchequer funding of €1.287 million, an increase of €96,000 over 2011. The leader's allowance funding for the party in 2012 was €1.789 million, an increase of €155,000 over 2011 in which the amount received was €1.634 million. At a time when we have stressed the need to tighten the strings on the public purse and appealed to every citizen to reduce spending and accept pay cuts and efficiencies - I supported all of this in light of the extraordinary efforts we have been obliged to make in order to try to extricate the country from the financial crisis in which it finds itself - it is grossly hypocritical for political parties to continue to approve substantial increases in the funding they receive.

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