Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

-----has not contradicted me confirms what I said - basically, that he does not intend to ban corporate donations but rather to produce a Bill which will bring in increased regulation, which I would welcome, in terms of transparency, declarations and so forth, but which would stop short of a ban.

That represents a U-turn on the position the Minister's party and the Labour Party took in advance of the general election when they said they would ban corporate donations. That was made very clear during the campaign, and right before election day. I cannot understand why these commitments were made so strongly days before polling day. I recall the election campaign well because the Labour Party had been clear about banning corporate donations for quite some time but Fine Gael had been less clear. It was kind of dragged out of Fine Gael towards the end of the election campaign when it confirmed in its presentation that it would ban corporate donations. Now the Minister is basically saying he does not believe that is a good idea and does not intend to pursue that and he has an alternative viewpoint.

Much of what he has articulated in terms of increased transparency, reduced thresholds, publication of party accounts and the sending of those accounts to the Standards in Public Office Commission and so forth were all contained in the Bill we brought before the House in May which the Government voted against. In fact, we incorporated the recommendations of the Moriarty tribunal in our Bill in May in regard to transparency, disclosure and so forth. I remember in the immediate aftermath of the Moriarty tribunal's report the Minister was somewhat coy or doubtful about some of the aspects of the recommendations of Moriarty in so far as they related to political funding and contributions. I am glad he has, to some extent, had a change of heart on that and I hope he is going the full distance in terms of what Moriarty recommended.

I hope the Minister will not pull short of the clear recommendations from the Moriarty tribunal on the regulatory framework to govern political donations in the future.

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