John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

I am currently giving consideration to the approaches that are to be taken to implement the commitments in the programme for Government regarding political donations. I intend to bring my proposals to the Government later this year. I believe there is widespread recognition that the manner in which the Irish political system is funded needs to be changed.

I therefore will be addressing definitively the relationship between business and politics in Ireland. In this regard, I note the recent comments of the Director of Public Prosecutions. In a speech to the Burren Law School on 1 May 2010 entitled, Prosecuting Corruption in Ireland, he stated, inter alia:

a continuing weakness of the regime to prevent corruption is that private donations to political parties are still not limited although they have to be declared above a certain amount [and] I do not believe that so long as the private financing of political parties is allowed in an unlimited way it will be possible to eliminate political corruption.

In bringing forward legislative proposals, I will have regard to the recommendations of the Council of Europe's Group of States Against Corruption and of the Standards in Public Office Commission. The Council of Europe's Group of States Against Corruption published its third evaluation report on Ireland in January 2010, Transparency of Party Funding. The report acknowledges that Ireland has developed a thorough system of regulation of party finance and is quite positive about the proactive and independent role of the Standards in Public Office Commission.

See this speech in context