John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

The Local Elections (Disclosure of Donations and Expenditure) Act 1999 fixes a limit of €6,349 as the maximum donation that may be accepted by a political party in any given year from any one source. The Electoral Act 1997, as amended, provides that political parties must disclose donations of more than €5,079 in any given year. The Labour Party amendment is intended to reduce these amounts to €4,000 as the maximum permissible donation in the context of local elections and €2,500 in respect of disclosure.

As the Deputy pointed out, the Taoiseach made comments on this matter at his party's Ard-Fheis. He also will be aware that I made specific commitments at my party's Ard-Fheis. Both of us are speaking for the Government. It is absolutely necessary to overhaul the legislation and to provide legal clarity on these matters. This Bill emanated from a commitment in the programme for Government. It was not a very clear commitment but we said that the Green Paper would examine these matters. Some doubt was cast on my commitment to delivering the legislation before the House today but we are now delivering it. The Deputy said he would welcome this legislation——

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