Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Let me tease this out. A fund cannot apply for tax clearance certificate, so it is the parliamentary party or the individual members. The Deputy needs to be specific in who is applying. My own party obviously publishes annual audited accounts. I think ours is the only party to do that and we are happy to do that. Each Member of the Oireachtas is obliged, within 90 days of election, to provide a tax clearance certificate to the Standards in Public Office Commission under the Standards in Public Office Act. I have no difficulty with any mechanism to provide further clarity in regard to people's tax compliance but the proposal that the fund would be required to be tax compliant would be meaningless. A fund cannot be tax complaint. Would it be the individual account holder, the chairman of the parliamentary party or the leader of the party? We need to tease it out a bit more and it needs much more clarity in terms of acceptance for legislative purposes.