Margaret Cox (Independent)

I hate to harp on about the same matter. That is something people do for political reasons and it annoys me. I ask the Minister to have patience.

I am obviously beginning to make sense and to get my point across. This year represents the first of five before the next general election. Let us consider a scenario where someone might give me a personal donation of €1,500 this year to help me out and where I might lodge that money to my personal bank account. If that process continued annually, I would be able to save €1,500 or perhaps a little less in each of the next five years. By virtue of receiving these dig-outs, I might be able to save a total of €5,000. I would keep that money in my current account, into which my salary also goes. I took the money I used in the recent election from my current account and from that of my husband.

I accept the Minister's point that there was nothing in place previously and that he is including something new. I welcome that development. However, there is no way to prove that an amount of €5,000 that I might withdraw from my current account, a credit union account or wherever did not come from personal donations. As a result of the difference in the limits, the legislation could be circumvented in this way. If the limits were the same, people would not go to the bother of trying to get around them. However, there is a significant difference between €650 and €2,000.

I appeal to the Minister to consider putting in place the same limits in order that there will be uniformity. If, during the lifetime of the next Government, there is a need to increase one limit, all of the limits relating to various items of legislation should be increased in order to maintain uniformity. That is my final word on the matter.