Political parties received nearly €12 million in State funding last year, according to the latest figures published by the Standards in Public Office Commission (Sipo).
Parties also declared donations totalling €142,917, more than half of which went to Fianna Fáil. The majority of the donations to Fianna Fáil came from property and construction companies.
The remaining donations to the other political parties, the Green Party, Sinn Féin and the Socialist Party, were made by the party's own TDs. According to Sipo, Fine Gael, the Labour Party and the Progressive Democrats disclosed no donations in 2005.
In its annual report on political donations, Sipo also referred to difficulties in supervising the returns from local branches of political parties, which are required under the legislation to furnish details of its donations accounts annually.
However under the declaration guidelines, the €142,917 is a fraction of the amount of money raised by political parties through fundraising, which does not have to be declared under the current rules.
According to the figures released by Sipo, the State gave €11.92 million to the political parties - €5.05 million of this was made through Exchequer funding, which is apportioned on the basis of the percentage of votes received by any political party that polled more than 2 per cent in the last General Election.
A further €6.87 million was paid out to parties through the Leader's Allowance fund, which is given to the leaders of each party based on the number of seats it holds in the Oireachtas.
Fianna Fáil received €4.6 million in State funding, the largest of any party, followed by Fine Gael, which was given €3.1 million and €1.9 million to the Labour Party. The remaining Oireachtas parties received less than €1 million each.
According to the figures released by the parties, the majority of the State funding, just over €7 million, was spent on general administration. They also spent just under €1 million on co-ordinating the branch and membership activities of their parties and €1.8 million on "support services" for TDs and Senators.
The figures also show that Fianna Fáil spent just over €560,000 and Fine Gael spent €180,000 on polling and sampling of public attitudes to parliamentary initiatives. A breakdown of this spending is not given, although a substantial proportion of it went on professional polling.
The Labour Party spent more than €61,000 on research and training, while the Progressive Democrats and Sinn Féin spent €60,000 and €38,000 respectively under the same heading.
Parties are legally required to disclose any donations of more than €5,079. The maximum donation allowable is just under €6,350. The Green Party disclosed donations of €5,100 from each of its six TDs while Sinn Féin disclosed donations of €6,000 from all of its TDs.
Fianna Fáil disclosed it had received €76,500 in donations from 13 companies, the vast majority of them construction or property firms. They included: developer Ballymore Properties, Castlemarket Holdings, Ascon, CB Richard Ellis Gunne, Durkan Homes, Maplewood Developments, P Elliott & Co and Roadbridge Ltd.
Under the legislation, units within a political party that accept donations, such as regional branches, are required to open a specific donations account and file annual returns, which are not published.
Sipo's report said that 39 of the 154 branches notified to it by political parties failed to furnish returns last year.