Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats appear determined to engage in a `smash and grab' raid on the political system through the introduction of higher spending limits at election time and the retention of corporate funding. Given the on-going disclosures at the various tribunals, this would be a bad day's work. Public cynicism is already rampant where politicians are concerned. The workings of our democracy need to be refurbished and made more transparent. What we are being offered by the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, and the Coalition Government is more of the same discredited patronage, albeit at a reduced level. The pressure for root-and-branch reform that has been exerted by Fine Gael and the Labour Party will be reflected in minor modifications of the Government's position. Instead of limiting donations to a political party to £20,000 from a single source in any one year, as Mr Dempsey proposed last December, the new figure will probably be reduced to £5,000. Donation limits for individual politicians are also likely to be set at £5,000. At the same time, the Minister has signalled his intention to increase spending limits by up to 30 per cent in Dail elections through the Electoral (Amendment) Bill, which is at present before the Seanad.
The work of the tribunals at Dublin Castle appears to have taught Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats nothing. Rather than adopt a new approach and leave a discredited system of corporate donations behind, the parties have opted to retain the advantages conferred on them by office and to reject the notion of a level political playing pitch for all in terms of spending. The very fact of being in government attracts money from the business sector. All parties accept this reality. But some politicians refuse to recognise there is no such thing as a free lunch. They persevere with the old refrain: `no favours asked and none given'. The tribunals tell a different story.
The Labour Party led the charge to ban corporate donations. Mr Michael Noonan adopted a similar policy on becoming leader of Fine Gael earlier this year. Hand-in-hand with their rejection of a discredited system of corporate funding, the two main opposition parties advocated a ceiling of £1,000 for donations to individual politicians from a single source. They also rejected Mr Dempsey's proposal to increase spending limits at election time and accused the government of attempting to buy the coming general election.
The Government's behaviour in all of this has been appalling. Early last year, it accepted the principle underlying a Private Members' Labour Party Bill that would have banned corporate donations. By December, it announced that corporate funding would continue and that expenditure limits would be increased. But, as the debate rumbled on, it indicated that the extent of corporate funding would be pegged back. The net outcome is that while the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, is determined to pass the Electoral (Amendment) Bill before the Dail rises in the first week of July, legislative amendments dealing with corporate and individual funding have yet to be formally announced. A guillotine will almost certainly be imposed by the Government in order to get the Bill through the Oireachtas.