TheStory.ie

The Irish Times leader is on ethics and standards in public life today. Good piece. Ending paragraph;

It is not just Fianna Fáil that has behaved badly over ethical legislation and transparency. Because political donations below a certain limit do not have to be disclosed to the standards commission, many donations were set below the limit.. The commission also suspects that large donations may be split up into small amounts to avoid disclosure. Last year, when local, European and byelections were held, not a single donation was publicly recorded by Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael or the Labour Party. This is a disgrace. Ethical standards and political funding mechanisms require fundamental reform.

Interesting bit in bold there.

Parties use various methods to effectively bypass the donations system. We’ve written about this pretty extensively in the past. Two pieces maybe worth re-reading if you’re interested in the topic. This one on a prior Times leader on funding reform which I disagreed with…

One oddity of the current system for donations to individuals is related to declaration thresholds. Despite being obliged to open an account once they receive a donation exceeding €126.97, politicians don’t have to declare full details of any donations less than €643.97 to the Standards in Public Office Commission. This means the bank account, for the purposes of transparency, is effectively useless unless a donation exceeding €643.97 is made. Reducing the declaration threshold from €643.97 to €126.97 while ensuring all transactions below the lower figure are on record anonymously would be beneficial to the transparency of the funding process. This would mean the public could inspect the credit and debit side of the donations account upon declaration and see if there were excessive amounts of donations made for more than, say, €100. If this was the case and SIPO suspected several of these may have come from one individual, SIPO should have the right to inspect the account in detail.

Of course a significant increase in the level penalties imposed against those who breach the above would also be warranted also. That almost goes without saying.

And one of the first posts on this site from way-back-when, when I tended to adopt a more cynical radical tone; Want to bypass our donations system? No problem.

The dreamer in me has been telling for while not the write this post. “Don’t tell the good politicians how the bold ones work the system”, it screamed. The other 99% of me said, “fuck it, they all know about this anyway, it’s whether they chose to work it or not is the question”. So here, dear reader, I tell you how I understand our public representatives can work the donations system…

Pretty much a how-to, that one, but perhaps insightful.

The Standards in Public Office Commission’s 8th annual report is out today. More hugely important, considered and implementable recommendations which will almost certainly be ignored, again.

I’m averse to publishing press releases in full but in this case I think there’s merit in seeing it straight from the horses mouth… Continue reading “SIPO Annual Report published”

The defence used by The Very Different Party to Fianna Fáil for tapping up a Nama 10 developer for donations is not inspiring.

The main opposition party has long criticised Fianna Fail’s record of raising money from property tycoons, citing a “cosy relationship” between the government party and developers.

Mr O’Flynn is company chairman and managing director of Cork-based O’Flynn Construction, which recently transferred debts approaching €1bn to the National Asset Management Agency.

The party’s finance spokesman Michael Noonan last night said the exclusive fundraiser at the K Club last week was above board, but would not comment further.

“Our fundraising is in compliance with the rules,” he told the Irish Independent.

Mr O’Flynn ‘sponsored’ the 18th hole for the fundraiser for an undisclosed sum. If done through his company the figure will need to be published in the annual accounts. Fine Gael will only have to disclose a figure if the profit from the sponsorship is above the ridiculously high declaration limit of €5037. However, they’ll not be required to provide documentary proof that the gross income minus the expenses for the day resulted in individual or collective breaches or non-breaches of the declarations. Of course, this all means that there will, almost guaranteed, be no breaches of the declaration limit on the day. Thus the undisclosed sum will likely remain undisclosed.

Hell, political parties aren’t even required to publish accounts, despite SIPO and the Council of Europe Group Against Corruption saying it should be a basic standard for more than a decade. So we’ll no little about what sums passed between the party and those in attendance on the day.

In recent years the opposition has taken the moral high ground on ‘legal corruption’ and accountability issues, citing the Galway tent consistently as an example of how Fianna Fáil has been ethically compromised. Yet they rarely if ever attempt to hold themselves above the standard of the “board”.

The SIPO rules were written and implemented under Fianna Fáil. Fine Gael and Labour say they need to be reformed; what’s stopping Labour and Fine Gael from holding themselves to the standards now that they wish to implemented if they get into power? Why not take the initiative and publish accounts, expenses and all donations above a lower minimum limit, as an excercise in transparency?

Politics over democracy, innit?

The Greens have their own standards for accepting donations. Praise deserved. Pity they don’t see fit to publish donations below the minimum declaration limits. All parties accept that the lower limits are too high, as far as I know. So what’s the problem?…

On that topic, I’m still waiting to see the transparency-related reforms detailed in the programme for government. Any news on that lobbyists’ register, Minister Gormley?