Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

Tairgim: "Go léifear an Bille an Dara hUair anois."

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."

In February, nearly every Member of this House stood on a platform of banning corporate donations. There was no equivocation and no party put a get-out clause in the footnotes of its manifesto. This is a reform which the public demand and which we have a duty to deliver sooner, not later.

Deep restrictions on corporate donations can be introduced in legislation but a complete ban can only be implemented by amending the Constitution. The text which is contained in this Bill incorporates the simple and powerful premise that elections should be funded by the people entitled to vote in elections. No organisation or company has a vote and their complete removal from the funding of parties would be an important symbol in the battle to restore faith in Irish politics. This is the first constitutional amendment to be considered by the House since the Oireachtas inquiries measure was defeated. We have to consider the manner in which the Government mishandled that referendum and the public anger at being taken for granted. Inflexible and arrogant Ministers refused to accept that anyone else could have a valid opinion and they chose to attack people personally rather than consider their arguments. Therefore, we need to consider in this debate how we should go beyond the normal Oireachtas scrutiny procedures before this measure would be referred to the public. If this Bill is passed, there is time to hold inclusive consultations, agree amendments and facilitate an informed public debate. A vote can and should be held before Easter next year.

This is the second occasion since the general election that I have brought legislation on corporate donations before the House. In May, I introduced a Bill to enact a range of restrictions which would, to all intents and purposes, have led to an immediate end to corporate donations. At that stage I acknowledged that a constitutional amendment would be required for a full and unchallengeable ban. The core of that Bill involved measures which are indistinguishable from those which the Government claims it wishes to implement. At the conclusion of the debate last May, 99 Deputies who had been elected on the platform of banning corporate donations, voted against it. Speaker after speaker on the Government side did not talk about the Bill but instead made cheap political attacks. It was a cynical display which had the required effect. Both Government parties were left free to ramp up their corporate fund-raising ahead of the presidential election.

Labour targeted businesses through fund-raising letters and Fine Gael did it by means of exclusive events such as the K-Club golf fund-raiser.

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