Fiach MacConghail (Independent)

I move amendment No. 2:

In page 22, between lines 11 and 12, to insert the following:

"85. -(1) There shall be immediate disclosure of all corporate and personal donations during a general election campaign.

(2) This disclosure is to commence on the date of the formal dissolution of the Dáil and to cease 6 months after the first sitting of the new Dáil.".

I formally congratulate the Minister on the overall tenor of the Bill and the amount of work that has been put into it. His rigorous and robust engagement with us, all the way from Second Stage, has been a learning curve for me and a deeply educational one. I have learned a great deal. I am very supportive of all the revised caps on donations and the increased transparency and accountability.

However, one area that concerns me is the general election. What I am concerned about is a transparency issue with regard to who is funding political parties and candidates during a general election and how that might influence how we might vote. In addition, there is the issue of how it might influence certain decisions after the general election, or the perception - we are back to the concept of perception - of some decisions or appointments that might be made by future Ministers which might have a connection with the donations.

We are accepting all the Minister's arguments, following Committee Stage, regarding the caps on donations and the procedure surrounding the transparency and disclosure of donations. However, one area that requires additional discussion is the time of a general election. Again, I will refer to the Moriarty tribunal report on donations. These are not my words; I am invoking Moriarty because it provided the impetus, although I recognise that both the Labour Party and Fine Gael, in their own right, would have pushed this anyway. The final report of the Moriarty tribunal published in 2011 says that donations should, if possible, be disclosed in something approaching a real time framework, for example, on the Standards in Public Office Commission, SIPO, website, rather than waiting for an annual disclosure report. This is especially important during an election period, as is stated on page 13 of the final report. It is important that as many donations as possible are disclosed during the period surrounding an election.

I look forward to hearing from the Minister why what we are suggesting cannot happen. What we mean by immediate disclosure is that the period could be 48 hours - we are not talking about instantaneous disclosure - but we could find a way of resolving that. I will be happy to hear the Minister's view. The disclosure is to commence on the date of the formal dissolution of the Dáil and to cease six months after the first sitting of the new Dáil. The spirit of this amendment is to allow citizens to make a full and informed decision on how they might vote, in the knowledge of where the candidate, particularly the political party candidate, actually stands on particular issues and how they might support them. That is the basis for proposing this amendment.