Fiach MacConghail (Independent)

A quota has been broken. I thank my colleague, Senator van Turnhout, for sharing time with me. First, I congratulate the Minister on introducing the Bill, and particularly on introducing it in the Seanad. The Bill is historic and is a profound opportunity to enhance the political culture and the participation of citizens in our republic. Yesterday, the Minister carried out a consultation process on local government, which has many connections with today's debate. Both debates demonstrate that the political forum agenda is firmly on the national agenda too.

Without wasting the House's time, I state categorically that I am in favour of affirmative action via quotas, as a short-term strategy to redress the historical balance of the lack of women participating in Irish political life. I have had to do the same in my own life with regard to women playwrights at the Abbey Theatre. Over the last 100 years since we were founded, the Abbey Theatre has produced very few women playwrights. I felt there was no point in just waiting for plays to be written by women. I would still be waiting. We had to actively and affirmatively put a programme in place to resolve this. We commissioned women writers and produced their work. I got plenty of criticism from a particular critic for this strategy, but it worked. For the first time in the history of Irish theatre we produced and presented four new world premieres of plays by women writers in a row over the last 18 months.

Irish political life has no choice now but to regulate, for the time being, candidate selection for elections. It is a reasonable option to take and we need to compel all the political parties to achieve the candidate quota for men and women. I implore the Minister to go straight away to the 40% quota on candidate selection. The Minister has given reasons for not doing that, but I would like to tease this issue out. I do not understand why we cannot start at 40% and maybe even go to 45%. If we do not do that we will need to wait until almost 2021, which is over ten years from now, to achieve the 40% candidate selection quota. We should be radical and visionary here and introduce the 40% quota for men and women immediately.

The Bill does not include provisions that affect the gender quota of candidates in local or Seanad elections. I would like to hear the Minister's reasons as to why this is not the case. I understand the reasoning in terms of local elections, but I would like to tease out this issue, which Senators Keane and Power also mentioned. Does the Minister expect the referendum on the abolition of the Seanad to be passed and is this why Seanad elections are not included in the Bill? This might be seen as peremptory. The Minister's vision on local government reform is evident. We should put a quota in place for the 2014 local elections, starting at 30%. On Committee Stage, we might find a way to support the Minister's evident political reform agenda.

To support this provision in the Bill the Houses of the Oireachtas also need to reform their practices and procedures. Leinster House has to adjust to a modern way of doing business within daylight hours that is supportive of family life. It behoves the Oireachtas to plan its business better, and we do not need legislation for that.

Equally critical in the Bill are the requirements of transparency and disclosure with regard to private and public funding. Under the existing Acts there is no specific requirement that parties keep proper books and accounts, nor any requirement to publish audited accounts of income and expenditure. I welcome the provision in the Bill that additional requirements on disclosure are included and that the Bill proposes to make payment of public funding dependent on political parties providing annual externally audited accounts to the Standards in Public Office Commission for publication.

With regard to donations, it is important to state that every citizen has the right to donate and contribute to any political party or cause and we should not see this as something unseemly or undemocratic. Political parties should not receive funding only from the State. Through encouraging political participation, donations by citizens should be an elemental part of this.

We know political parties survive on two forms of State funding. One is based on the party's first preference performance in previous general elections and is made under the Electoral Acts. The second payment is made under the Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices Act 2001 and is known as the leaders' allowance. It is based on the number of elected members of a party. This leaders' allowance is also made available to Independent Members of both Houses. The Bill makes no reference to individual Members or non-party Members of the Dáil or Seanad. Qualifying parties relate only to political parties. I would like to propose that all Independent Members of the Oireachtas, including myself, should have a statutory responsibility to provide detailed accounts of donations and public funding to the commission on an annual basis. This should include the leaders' allowance. I am in receipt of the leaders' allowance. There are guidelines for the use of this allowance but there is no requirement to vouch or keep accounts. I suggest that the Standards in Public Office Commission draw up requirements for disclosure by non-party Members of the Oireachtas. Moriarty tribunal findings state that "appropriate measures should be adopted to ensure that all equivalent obligations apply to Independent or non-party candidates". We might include that as an amendment to the Bill.

I would love corporate donations to be banned. I understand there is a debate on their constitutionality. The programme for Government undertakes to abolish them. My concern is that the Bill suggests that the disclosure of corporate donations should be done within six months of the year end in question. If there is an election in the month of January disclosure need not happen until June of the following year, which is too late for citizens to be informed before casting a vote. The report of the Moriarty tribunal mentions that donations should, if possible, be disclosed in something approaching a real timeframe, as in immediately, and that this should be important, particularly during a general election. In other words, if we cannot ban corporate donations entirely I advocate full and immediate disclosures of all corporate donations. I hope to bring amendments to the Bill on Committee Stage in the areas I have outlined.