Ivana Bacik (Independent)

I do not want to prolong the discussion unnecessarily. It is a debate that has already taken place. With respect to Senator Mullen, it is my understanding - obviously, I am not privy to the Attorney General's advice - that we have not been able to enact an outright ban on corporate donations because of certain provisions of the Constitution. This was explored by parties in opposition before ever there was a change of Government last February. I recall extensive debate on this issue in the course of which we were all told, in different parties and by many different legal advisers, that an outright ban was not possible because freedom of expression is not confined to individual human persons. I do not have the case law in front of me but my recollection is that cases like that involving Quinn's Supermarket have established that freedom of expression, association rights and so on can be enforced before the courts by entities which are corporate personalities. That is my recollection of it. As such, I do not accept, with respect, that the Senator is correct in his point about Article 40. The reason we cannot introduce an outright ban is rooted in our constitutional jurisprudence. That was always my understanding - not that it was rooted in other treaties. There may be other issues arising from the European Convention on Human Rights and so on, but I have not looked into those.