Minister for Justice Michael McDowell has defended as "fair" planned legislation that will treble the value of a donation a politician can receive without being obliged to declare it.
Under the new Ethics in Public Office (Amendment) Bill gifts or donations to politicians under €2,000 would not have to be declared, more than three times the current threshold of €650.
"It's a reasonable arrangement," Mr McDowell said.
He added when deciding on the new limit for undeclared donations, the legislatures examined "the situation now" compared with 1995, when the €650 limit was enshrined into legislation. He was recently given a desktop lamp while on a ministerial visit, only to later find it was valued at more than €650. As a result he had to donate the lamp to the Department of Justice rather than keep it as a gift.
"I don't think that's what the people who gave it to me had in mind at the time," he said.
The current limit had become so low in modern monetary terms that a donation of a trip to an event like the Ryder Cup with dinner would have to be declared to the Standards in Public Office Commission.
This had the effect of even minor gifts becoming the subject of paperwork lodged to the commission seeking advice as to how the gift should be treated. This was "absurd", Mr McDowell said.
The new legislation was promised last October following controversy when it emerged that Taoiseach Bertie Ahern had accepted more than €60,000 from friends and Manchester-based businessmen in 1993 and 1994. Mr McDowell said the thresholds in the Bill had been approved by committees in both Houses of the Oireachtas. It would result in politicians being obliged to declare any donation above €2,000.
"That's what the people asked for and that's what they're getting," Mr McDowell said.
When asked about Mr Ahern's payments controversy last year, Mr McDowell said he stated at the time it was wrong of Mr Ahern to accept the money.
Last night, the Progressive Democrats said it had been fully consulted about the ethics legislation, which had been discussed by the parliamentary party in advance of its publication.
