Sir, - Joan Burton's continued opposition to electoral reform (January 22nd) is notable for its repeated failure to address the core issues raised in the debate.
Ms Burton has not addressed the motivation behind Labour's hostility to more sensible and realistic electoral spending limits, while Labours record of election overspending is unparalleled in Irish politics. Labour overspent in the Dublin North by-election and the Dublin South Central by-election.
Ms Burton has not addressed the motivation behind Labour's objections to corporate funding while her party continues to engage in corporate fund-raising activities. The Labour Party has invited corporate Ireland to £1,000-a-head golf classics. While in Government, a Labour Minister for State sent invites on Departmental notepaper offering a £100-a-head "rare opportunity to gain access" to the then Minister for Finance, Ruairi Quinn. Labour also failed to inform the Public Offices Commission of a £27,000 SIPTU donation in 1998. Indeed, Ruairi Quinn, in his last year in government, was the largest single recipient of corporate donations, amassing a total of £27,000.
I have suggested that the real reason for opposing Mr Dempsey's reforms is that Labour has forwarded its own proposals which would render the establishment of effective new leftwing parties which would threaten Labour's flank as it moves ever right-ward, impossible. In her letter Ms Burton did not challenge this suggestion.
I have also suggested that in the general area of political funding, Labour have exchanged constructive opposition for unreasoned political antagonism. Again, Ms Burton has not challenged this suggestion.
The Labour Party continues to present itself as a sentinel of political morality although its record plainly fails to substantiate the spin. The failure of Ms Burton and her colleagues to address the key issues it testimony to this. - Yours, etc.,
Michael Ahern, TD Dail Eireann, Dublin 2.
Sir, - A letter in the name of Michael Ahern, TD (January 17th) seeks to justify Fianna Fail's proposal to change the law and so allow itself to use corporate donations to try to buy the next general election. Apparently this is justified by Labour overspending in two by-elections. It is time to set this matter straight.
There have been five by-elections under the new spending limits introduced in 1997. In Dublin North, the first by-election under the new rules, Labour spent £497 over the £17,000 limit. The Public Office Commission (POC) concluded that "the overspend had not knowingly been incurred and that the amount was not material". In Dublin South Central, because it was unclear whether office rent prior to the election should be counted, Labour spent £257.62 over the £17,550 limit. Again the POC concluded that "the agent did not knowingly cause an overspend to occur and that the amount of the overspend was immaterial". Furthermore the issue was referred to the DPP who responded that "because of the ambiguity of the statute, it is not clear that the agent's view [in relation to the rent] is incorrect". This matter is still not resolved.
Fianna Fail's unwillingness to adopt the spirit of this legislation was manifest by its stroke of printing several thousands of pounds worth of posters for Limerick East and Dublin North prior to the regulations coming into force, thus avoiding having to declare this expenditure.
Labour's "immaterial" overspending arose, not because the spending limits are too low, but because of a lack of clarity in the regulations. This is not surprising, given that this is a new approach to a complex issue. This is acknowledged by all parties, and specifically by the Chair of the Fianna Fail Parliamentary Party, Deputy Rory O'Hanlon, who in October last year invited representatives of Fine Gael and Labour to discuss how greater clarity could be achieved. The Labour Party entered discussions with the two establishment parties only on the specific understanding that the principle of the legislation and the spending limits were accepted by all.
While these discussions on how to tackle the teething problems were proceeding, the Minister for the Environment, who is also the Treasurer of Fianna Fail, was preparing to draw all the teeth of the new regulations, boosting Fianna Fail's election spending from £2 million to £3 million.
Dempsey's new rules, which Mr Ahern considers "more realistic", will allow Fianna Fail to spend £142,000 for every single day of the election campaign - and this does not include payments to canvassers and election workers. What promises or understandings will be exchanged with the wealthy donors who will fund this electoral spending spree? In what expensive future Tribunal will these deals be unravelled? These Fianna Fail rule changes strike at the heart of our democracy and must be stopped. - Yours, etc.,
Mike Allen, General Secretary, Labour Party, Ely Place, Dublin 2.