Aideen Hayden (Labour)

I thank the Minister for that clarification.

It is important to point out that while this legislation is clearly going a long way in terms of transparency, political parties are voluntary bodies. We are concerned nationally with the lack of participation in public and political life. While it is critical that we have transparency, we must be careful not to make being part of the political system almost impossible for what are, in most instance, very small voluntary bodies. It is a pity that, while we are looking here at significantly increasing transparency within political life, we do not have the same level of transparency in other areas that are being funded by the Irish public, for example, the banking and voluntary sectors. Very significant amounts of public money are going into voluntary organisations which have nothing like the reporting requirements that are placed on political parties. Perhaps the Minister might consider that point for his next iteration.