Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 86:

In page 129, after line 9, to insert the following:

“PART 6

AMENDMENT OF ELECTORAL ACT 1997 - POLITICAL DONATIONS AND ACCOUNTS

Definition

146. In this Part, “Principal Act” means the Electoral Act 1997.”.

The committee will be aware of the commitment in the programme for Government to:

Review our current electoral laws and the conduct of politics in Ireland, to ensure that donations and resources from non-citizens outside the State are not being utilised to influence our elections and political process. We will legislate to prevent this, if necessary.

In early 2021, I wrote to all 25 political parties on the register of political parties seeking their views on the regulation of electoral funding from outside the jurisdiction and on other related matters. The amendments being brought forward now are as a result of that consultation process.

The amendments will strengthen the definitions of “subsidiary organisation” and “donation” as set out in the Electoral Act 1997. They will impose a new obligation on the leaders of political parties to provide a written statement and an accompanying statutory declaration in respect of each year to the Standards in Public Office Commission stating that all donations from outside of the State, whether in cash or in kind, have been declared and that no other donations, either in cash or in kind, took place. The amendments insert new requirements into the Electoral Act 1997 in respect of adherence to financial reporting standard, FRS, 102 and the inclusion of all property in the ownership of the political party and its subsidiary organisations when the annual statements of accounts are being prepared. They also prohibit donations in any form of cryptocurrency and provide a wide range of investigatory and enforcement powers to the Standards in Public Office Commission, as the body currently responsible for regulatory oversight of the Act. These provisions are modelled on similar powers in the Regulation of Lobbying Act 2015, which the Standards in Public Office Commission is already familiar with. The amendments provide for the inclusion of credit unions in the definition of “institution”. This will allow political donations accounts to be opened and maintained within credit unions by the recipients of political donations rather than such accounts being solely confined to banks and building societies. They also provide for the amounts specified in sections 23C and 48C of that Act to be varied by order, having regard to changes in the consumer price index. These amounts relate to the donation threshold in respect of which the obligations under the Act apply to third parties. All other donation thresholds under the Act can already be varied by order in line with changes in the consumer price index.

I believe the proposed amendments will clarify and strengthen the relevant provisions of the Electoral Act 1997 against the malicious use of financial resources from outside the State to interfere with our political and democratic processes.