Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin North Central, Labour)

I appreciate the opportunity to speak on this issue. It would be politically easy to storm in here and make party political judgements on the sentiment behind the Bill. I do not think the House or Bill deserves that.

I appreciate the tone used by Deputy Dooley in trying to be constructive, and referring to the past and future and what we can achieve together. Any new Member of the House will realise it is not in any way reflective of Ireland. It is almost exclusively white, very middle-class and 13% female. There is a question mark over corporate donations, money and who does and does not get into power.

I spent five years as a political representatives in the north inner city and 11 years teaching in the area. There is a question mark over who has power and who has the power to influence power. Unfortunately we all accept that sometimes money talks and those from a particular financial background do not feel they have a stake in the political system. Their participation rates, turnout in elections and level of voter registration are lower. There is a perception that if one does not have financial purse strings one does not have influence on the political system. The Bill enables us to have a good look at the heart of Irish politics and consider how we can move on. We have had a sordid past and there has been a perception of influence over politics. We have had problems, not just in terms of shady brown envelope dealings and backroom meetings. Legislation has been passed in this House which had legitimate objectives and enjoyed the support of various political parties. For example, the Part V provision of the Planning and Development Act 2000, whereby 20% of all new developments would be set aside for social or affordable housing, was broadly welcomed. However, because of the undue influence of a particular interest group, that provision was watered down, with nine different ways introduced to allow developers to side-step their obligation. During the boom many of us on local authorities, who struggled to accommodate people on the incredibly lengthy housing lists, were left with a gut feeling that particular vested interests were wielding an undue influence on the political system to such an extent that they were able to change the Minister's view on how social housing would be provided. As a result, most of the most vulnerable people in society did not have their housing needs met.

We must consider why political parties need money and to what end that money is spent. Reference was made to postering, leafleting and so on. How is a person without the required financial capacity supposed to compete in that game? Elections are games in the sense that it is all about how many posters one erects, how many leaflets one distributes, how many fund-raisers one holds and how much one is willing to invest in a campaign. Interestingly, in the recent presidential election the candidate who was topping the polls for a good deal of the campaign did not use any posters. This gave pause for many of us to reconsider the validity and effectiveness of postering.

What is at issue here is access to the democratic process. In many ways, Irish politics is fundamentally broken. I am a former teacher and I count people from many professions among my parliamentary colleagues. It is amazing to observe the difference in how one is perceived as soon as one enters politics. When one is working in a community or in a school, nobody second guesses one's bona fides or motivation for taking a particular stance. However, as soon as one stands for election or becomes involved in a political campaign, one's motivations are consistently and constantly questioned. Any position one adopts is liable to be dismissed as a means of winning votes, as only being taken because somebody has given one something or one is trying to defend this or that vested interest. It is difficult to argue against that attitude in the context of the donation system as it currently stands.

Reference has been made to the subscriptions the Labour Party receives from trade unions. If we are to have a proper system of financing of the political system, all parties must play their part. As such, I would be happy to see an end to the connection between my party and the trade union movement. However, as Deputy Eamonn Maloney observed, there is a great difference between a trade union making donations to a party in the hope it will protect the rights of workers and a corporation doing the same with the objective of safeguarding its right to make profit. There is a fundamental difference in that. Nevertheless, if we have a situation where people are, even for a moment, second guessing politicians' bona fides in respect of their policy or legislative positions and suspecting they are owned by any vested interest, then there is a need for change. Therefore, I agree that the donations the Labour Party receives from the various trade unions - although they amount to only a small percentage of our income - should be ended, if that would help the political process.

We must be constructive in our approach to this issue. There is much talk at present of creating a new republic, ensuring every citizen has a stake in the country, reassuring people that they have political representatives who will defend them and reflect their concerns, and inspiring confidence in people that they have as much say through the ballot box as anybody else. In this regard, I am confident that the legislation we bring forward will iron out any flaws in the Bill and offer a constructive way forward. This must be part of a process and we must all go through it together. When presented with a Fianna Fáil Bill on corporate donations, there is an instinctive and easy temptation to dredge up the past and engage in a party political muzzling exercise. However, that does nobody any favours, either Members of this House or the people who have put us in here to clean up the political process.

It is time to accept the bona fides of Members on all sides of the House on the question of how we can change politics. There has been some suggestion that this debate is merely a tokenistic gesture, and I understand why some may be of that view. However, that we are here on a Friday says something about how things have changed. We must take a different approach to our engagement with these important issues. If there is a willingness across the political spectrum, from Members of all parties and none - Independent Deputies have argued strongly that they find it far more difficult to engage in the political system - then we might get somewhere. We must ensure that people feel they have a stake in the political system, that their vote counts and that it is as valid and has as much power as that of the person with a large cheque book.

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