I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Local Elections (Disclosure of Donations and Expenditure) Bill, 1999, as it is an area of particular interest to me. This Bill must be viewed in the general political context of where we are in regard to political funding, donations and expenditure at national and local level. There is widespread agreement among the general public and politicians that we must restore and improve standards in public office. It is vital that we do so if we are to restore some of the confidence which has been lost in the political system. That the Government has come forward with proposals for standards in public office is a clear commitment to action. All political parties and Independents in the Oireachtas share this concern. These proposals have been presented to the Committee on Finance and the Public Service and a sub-committee has examined them in detail over the past number of weeks. I was pleased to be a member of that sub-committee which will publish its report on 29 April. The report will be referred to the Government with a view to it considering our comments, suggestions and proposals and bringing forward legislation before the summer.
In recent years a number of tribunals have been established to investigate matters of public importance, including the beef tribunal, the McCracken tribunal, the Moriarty tribunal and the Flood tribunal. A common theme in all these tribunals is the link between business donations and politicians and political parties. The disclosures in relation to these matters arising from the various tribunals have caused concern among the entire community. It is right that all these matters should be fully and properly investigated by tribunals which have very important work to do and everybody should co-operate fully and voluntarily with the tribunals so they can get to the bottom of the matters under investigation. Any wrongdoing highlighted by the tribunals should be investigated by the Director of Public Prosecutions and should ultimately lead to prosecutions.
As elected politicians we have a primary role in restoring public confidence in the political system. We all acknowledge the tribunals have important work to do. Nevertheless, politicians have a clear role to fulfil in our own right. They must bring forward proposals to restore confidence in public office – the public expects nothing less. Currently there are several matters with which we as politicians should deal. The essence of a democracy is that elected representatives represent the people. The role of the citizen and voter must be pre-eminent. When people vote in elections their decisions must be respected and there should be no hidden influences on the political system. Revelations in recent years have highlighted links between business and politics. We should separate business and corporate donations from politics and politicians. We should bring forward legislation to outlaw once and for all business donations to politicians and political parties. We should ban all financial contributions from all forms of businesses, be they limited companies, partnerships, co-operatives, representative organisations or other groups. We must also ensure no organisation or umbrella group is allowed act as a collection agent for funds for onward transmission for political purposes.
In a democracy citizens are entitled to show support for a candidate, politician or party of their choice by voting for them on polling day, working for them during an election campaign and assisting them with their time, energy and expertise as may suit the individual concerned. There is a belief that individuals have a constitutional right to financially support a politician or political party of their choice. Legislation should be introduced to limit total donations to a maximum of £1,000 per year per individual. Members and supporters of parties should be free to pay membership fees and participate in local fundraising activities, etc., subject to an annual maximum contribution of £1,000 from any one individual.
In recent years there has been a significant increase in Exchequer funding for political parties. This year £3.17965 million is being made available by the Exchequer to the various political parties and Independents as follows: £2.59901million under the party leaders allowance scheme and £1.4864 million under the Electoral Act, 1997. These figures may not be widely known. Given that the Exchequer has gone a substantial way towards subventing the political system, we should complete the process and provide for full funding of all parties. An estimated additional £4 million would be sufficient to fully finance all political parties. This would give a total Exchequer subvention of approximately £7 million per annum to be allocated between the various parties.
In the context of public funding for parties, all party accounts and financial records should be published, laid before Dáil Éireann each year and be open to public scrutiny. The Comptroller and Auditor General should report on the accounts on an annual basis. New legislation should provide for funding for new candidates, those who failed to be elected and new political parties. If no such mechanism existed the legislation would be biased in favour of established political parties.
There is a widespread belief that business donations to politicians and political parties are not healthy and should be stopped. The country is almost on a permanent tribunal footing in the context of investigating these donations. We are spending many millions of pounds per annum on various tribunals, the root cause of which in many cases are payments to politicians. We would be far better off investing some of this money in providing full public funding for parties and eliminating all corporate donations.
Sooner or later the political system will have to accept that corporate donations to politicians and political parties are no longer acceptable. We should take the lead at this time. I propose the enactment of legislation to ban all financial donations by businesses to politicians and political parties, to restrict financial donations from individuals to politicians and political parties and to provide for full funding and accountability for all political parties and candidates.
This is the essence of the points I raised at the sub-committee of the Committee on Finance and the Public Service last week when we considered proposals by the Government for standards in public office. It is appropriate that these points be restated in the Chamber during this debate.
I welcome the general thrust of the Bill and am happy that it has been brought before the House. I expect it will be enacted before the forthcoming local elections. I also hope all candidates and potential candidates will be given an easily readable summary, in simple English, outlining their obligations. The Bill sets out onerous obligations and I would not like anybody to be in contravention of it as a result of not understanding the various measures included in it.
The Bill provides a statutory scheme for the disclosure of election expenses at local elections by candidates, political parties and third parties. In addition, candidates will be required to disclose the source of funds used to meet these election expenses. Any donation over £500 will also have to be disclosed. These provisions are good. Some controversy has resulted from the fact that no limits have been mentioned in terms of expenditure in local elections. This is the first time we are applying these provisions to local elections and it is appropriate that we establish a full picture as to what is happening and use that information for future purposes. Perhaps we will examine the issue of expenditure limits at a later date, although I am not in favour of them. People are free to spend as much money as they like advertising Coca-Cola, McDonalds, cars, etc. I place a higher value on the political process and on being elected to public office than on buying some of these consumer goods. To my knowledge the advertisement of cigarettes is the only other area where there are major restrictions on the basis that cigarettes damage health and can lead to death. It is incongruous that the only other area where expenditure on advertisement and promotion is restricted is in the context of general elections. I do not want to see excessive expenditure, but the approach is fatally flawed and demeaning to the political process. Voter turn out and the numbers who vote on polling day has been mentioned. I would like the Department of the Environment and Local Government to spend a great deal of time, energy, resources and funding on conducting detailed questionnaires and surveys of the public on why they do not vote. The turn out in recent general elections has been in decline. There was a time not so long ago when the turn out was more than 75 per cent. In the last election it was 66 per cent. That means one in three of the electorate, which is almost one million people, decided for one reason or another not to vote. That concerns me, and I would like research and information on that so politicians can address the reasons people do not vote. That would be a good service to the political system.
Another provision in the Bill I am pleased to see is the fund for research into the electronic recording and counting of votes in future elections using ballot papers from the forthcoming local and European elections. We should only count votes electronically. I would not be pleased to see a mechanism which meant one had to vote mechanically or electronically in polling stations. A number of people might find that off-putting, older people especially. None of us has a problem filling out the ballot paper. What causes the public concern is that it can take several days to obtain a result, especially if there are recounts. A system of counting votes electronically would solve that problem, but the ballot paper would have to be designed to facilitate that.
Some ballot papers may not be capable of being counted accurately electronically. That small percentage can be counted manually and included in the overall figure. I would like to see the emphasis on the counting of votes. It is remarkable that it can take several days to obtain a general election result here whereas the result in the UK is obtained in the early hours of the morning after voting and the new Prime Minister is in 10 Downing Street by lunchtime the next day. I would like to see that happening here. I see no reason for the delay.
A matter I would like to see addressed in future legislation on local elections is a provision for the election of the person with the power at local level. If that is to be the county manager, the county manager should stand for election. I am pleased with the suggestion of an election for the chairperson of each local authority, but it is a facade unless the chairperson is to have power.
There is a myriad of legislation covering election expenditure and ethics in politics, such as the Electoral Act, 1997. We now have the Bill and the Government is proposing further legislation on standards in public office which will be published before the summer. It will be necessary before long to have consolidating legislation dealing with this. Every six months when there is a new crisis concerning political matters or when an election is to be held, we introduce legislation to deal with the problem at hand. There is so much legislation, it is safe to say that some of it is contradictory. I would like to see consolidating legislation introduced as soon as possible.
The essence of local elections is that people in a county should have the right to vote for the local authority or county council by which they will be administered. There is a major problem in County Laois. The Local Government Boundaries (Town Elections) Regulations, 1994, provided for the extension of the boundaries of a number of towns, including Carlow, for the purposes of local elections. The boundary of Carlow Urban District Council extended into County Laois for the urban district council elections. In the local elections in June this year, people in County Laois who are governed and administered by Laois County Council and who are in the Dáil constituency of Laoighis-Offaly will vote in the Carlow County Council elections. That is wrong and is almost unconstitutional. The 700 people in the Greycullen area of County Laois have no vote in the forthcoming local elections for Laois County Council even though they are in County Laois and will be serviced by Laois County Council. It is an anomaly that they will only have a vote in Carlow County Council which will have no administrative authority over them. The relevant statutory instrument should be withdrawn and the legislation repealed. It may have been introduced for good reasons at the time, but it serves no useful purpose any longer and should be withdrawn.
I support the legislation and look forward to it being incorporated in consolidating legislation in coming years.
