Mr. John Devitt:

I will address the Electoral Act 1997 briefly. We work with Amnesty International, Front Line Defenders, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties and others in the Coalition for Civil Society Freedom, which has campaigned and lobbied for an amendment of section 22 of the Act, which imposes burdens on non-profit organisations that are equivalent to those imposed on political parties. This has meant that many non-profit organisations are unable to fundraise for work around human rights or any other public interest issue in which they are engaged. It was an inadvertent consequence of the passage of the Electoral (Amendment) Act 2001. As noted by the Minister of the time, it was not intended to apply those rules to not-for-profit organisations engaging in day-to-day advocacy. It has meant that many who are engaged in lobbying, or who are inclined to engage in lobbying, are nervous to do so for fear of falling foul of these measures. The Act has been criticised by EU and UN bodies, which have noted that it impedes civil society freedoms and democratic norms.

We have supported a Private Members' Bill, tabled by Senator Ruane and supported by Senator Higgins, which would have more neatly defined the term “political purpose” and avoided any confusion that currently arises from the Act. The current proposals to wait until an electoral commission is established mean that not-for-profit organisations will continue to be burdened with these draconian regulations, which, as I said, were an unintended consequence of the amendment Act of 2001.

On shareholding, we had suggested back in 2014 that significant shareholders who engage in lobbying be captured by the Act as well, perhaps those with over a 25% shareholding, which is the current requirement for registration as a beneficial owner of a company, but I am aware the commission might have more on this than I have.