Michael McCarthy (Labour)

I move:

That Seanad Éireann, recognising the significance of the Report by the Standards in Public Office Commission, calls on the Government to ensure that:–

(1) current election spending limits are retained, and

(2) that legislation is introduced to regulate expenditure in the period leading up to a General Election.

This motion is self-explanatory. Financing of politics by big business in recent years has been the cause of major controversy. We need only look at what happened in Dublin Castle over the last number of years, and we all know now the extent to which politics and business was inextricably linked. That in itself did a disservice to the body politic and a gross disservice to the reputations of politicians. The vast majority of them have been good, honourable and decent people but the minority who were responsible for the dirt and filth which emanated from the tribunals taught us all a very valuable lesson.

The Standards in Public Office Commission has done extraordinary work in recent years. It trawled through almost 9,000 pages of documents and 200,000 invoices while its secretariat was most helpful to anybody who contacted it about his or her declarations before and after the general election. Its representatives travelled around the country to meet candidates and agents who may have had difficulty with their declarations. It would be remiss of us not to mention the amount of hard work the secretariat did on this issue.