Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

We are losing sight of the core premise of the entire Bill in terms of its potential role to strengthen our democracy and improve accountability and transparency in our political system. That is what the Bill is about. That is what establishing the electoral commission is about. As the Ceann Comhairle stated, I am not going to get into any issues in respect of any political party. What this amendment does is for all political parties to be able to participate in our electoral system and our political process. In response to the point Deputy Doherty made around money being raised to influence the political process, moneys that political parties raised are moneys raised to participate in our political system on an equal footing and to be able to do that. It is important that, collectively, we have an ability to do that. I am a member of a very small political party, as are Deputies Nash and Cian O'Callaghan. We run fundraisers, table quizzes and events for our elections campaigns. Families and members of the community donate. That helps us to get to where we are, into Dáil Éireann or council chambers. This amendment is intended to enable political parties to participate, to be able to raise funds legitimately under the gaming and lotteries legislation, including raffles, draws, sweepstakes and bingo events. Those are legitimate events. The point was raised that this is a new source. The amendment does not specifically propose to introduce a new source or source of funding for political parties. It is intended to provide that lotteries previously operated by political parties which were referred to as draws, raffles, sweepstakes or otherwise can continue to run subject to requirements of the new Part 8.

A point was raised by Deputy Nash in respect of NGOs and civil society organisations. I have met with the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, ICCL, and the coalition of civil liberty organisations. We have given a firm commitment to the ICCL that we will address the issue of the political purposes under the 1997 Act under a broad, comprehensive review. I gave that commitment on Committee Stage and I am giving it again this evening. We will task the commission to carry out that work early on. We do want to address the matter. It is critically important that we do so.

The amendment relates to part of our political system and process. There are no strokes being pulled. There is nothing untoward about it. My colleague has articulated that better than I could. It is not for one particular political party but for all political parties to participate in our political system. I emphasise that the amendment we are bringing forward will simply allow registered political parties to fundraise legitimately by means of draws, raffles and so on. The proposed amendment will remove any doubt that currently exists around the legitimacy of such fundraising events. It is also important to note that the donations regime in the Electoral Act 1997 and the thresholds set out therein will apply to fundraising events organised by political parties. This will not be a way to circumvent those rules. In this context, it will be incumbent on any political party that might engage in fundraising activities under the new Part 8 to ensure that it is in compliance with the requirements under Part 4 of the Electoral Act 1997.

It is unfortunate that Deputies have chosen to see this as a stroke or something untoward. It is to allow political parties to participate in our electoral system. We must not lose sight of the overall premise of the Bill which is around the establishment of an electoral commission and to improve and strengthen our democracy and accountability and transparency in our political system.

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