Political Party Donations 2014 Report to the Chairman of Dáil Éireann pursuant to section 4(1) of the Electoral Act 1997 Standards in Public Office Commission 18 Lower Leeson Street Dublin 2 Telephone: (01) 6395666 Fax: (01) 6395684 E-Mail: [email protected] Website: www.sipo.gov.ie Twitter: @SIPOCIreland June 2015 Contents Foreword Part 1 Introduction Part 2 Donations disclosed by political parties Part 3 Accounting Units Part 4 Donor Statements Part 5 Publication of Statutory Documentation Appendix Table 1: Summary of donations disclosed by political parties for 2014 Table 2: Details of donations disclosed by political parties for 2014 1 Foreword I am pleased to furnish this report to the Ceann Comhairle in accordance with section 4(1) of the Electoral Act 1997, as amended (the Act). The report relates to annual Donation Statements/Statutory Declarations, in respect of 2014, furnished to the Standards in Public Office Commission by political parties pursuant to section 24 of the Act. ____________________ Justice Daniel O’Keeffe Chairman June 2015 2 Part 1 Introduction Not later than 31 March each year, political parties are required by section 24(1)(b) of the Act to furnish a Donation Statement covering the previous calendar year to the Standards Commission. During 2014 there were 18 political parties registered to contest Dáil or European elections. These 18 parties were obliged to furnish a Donation Statement for 2014 to the Standards Commission. Section 4(1) of the Act requires the Standards Commission to consider every Donation Statement furnished to it and where it considers it appropriate to do so, to furnish a report in writing to the Chairman of Dáil Éireann (Ceann Comhairle) on any matter arising. 3 Part 2 Donations disclosed by political parties Section 24(1)(b) of the Act provides that a donation statement is a written statement, in a form directed by the Commission, signed by an officer of the political party stating that a donation, exceeding €1,500, had been received during the preceding year and stating in respect of each such donation: • the aggregate value of the donations and • the name, description and postal address of the person by or on whose behalf the donation was made. The maximum value of donations which a political party can accept from the same person in the same calendar year is €2,500. Amount of donations disclosed by political parties United Left received a donation of €3,225 which was in excess of the maximum permitted amount but the excess donation of €725 was returned to the donor and documentary evidence of this was also submitted to the Standards Commission. The total value of donations disclosed by parties during 2014 was €166,392. Tables 1 and 2 of the Appendix show in detail the donations disclosed by political parties for 2014. A summary of the donations disclosed is shown below: Total Donations disclosed Party € Anti - Austerity Alliance 13,400 Fine Gael 102,567 Green Party 3,600 People before Profit Alliance 2,500 Sinn Féin 1,520 Stop the Water Tax – Socialist Party 30,405 The Labour Party 5,000 United Left 2,500 Workers and Unemployed Action 4,900 Total 166,392 Timeliness of political party returns Under section 25 of the Act, it is an offence for the appropriate officer of a political party to fail to furnish a Donation Statement/Statutory Declaration and Certificate of Monetary Donations/Statutory Declaration to the Standards Commission by the specified date. The deadline for furnishing the required documentation was Tuesday 31 March 2015. Fourteen of the eighteen political parties required to furnish a Donation Statement/Statutory Declaration to the Commission did so by 1 April 2015. The Workers Party furnished the required documentation on 17 April 2015, the Independents for Equality on 23 April 2015 and the Communist Party of Ireland on 27 April 2015. Direct Democracy Ireland has not yet submitted the required statutory documentation. The Standards Commission referred a file to the Gardaí on the failure of Direct Democracy Ireland to comply with the statutory requirements on 1 May 2015. 4 Part 3 Accounting Units Accounting Units An “accounting unit” is defined in section 22(2)(aa) of the Act as a branch or other subsidiary organisation of a political party which in any particular year receives a donation the value of which exceeds €100. Responsible Person Section 22(2)(aa) also provides that the “responsible person” in relation to an accounting unit, means the treasurer or any other person responsible for dealing with donations to the unit. Political Donations Account An accounting unit, on receipt of a monetary donation in excess of €100, must open and maintain a political donations account in a financial institution in the State and that donation and any further donations received must be lodged to that account [Section 23B(1)]. An “account” is specified in Section 22(2)(aa) as an account in an institution in the State for the purpose of crediting and debiting money received in respect of donations. Certificate of Monetary Donations The responsible person must, by 31 March each year, as required by Section 23B(5), furnish to the Standards Commission: • a statement from the financial institution where the political donations account was opened specifying the transactions that have taken place in relation to the account during the preceding year (bank statement), and • a certificate, signed by him/her, stating that all monetary donations received during the preceding year were lodged to the account and that all amounts debited from the account were used for political purposes, and • a statutory declaration, signed by him/her, that, to the best of the responsible person's knowledge and belief, the certificate is correct in every material respect and that all reasonable action has been taken in order to satisfy him/herself as to the accuracy of the certificate. The statutory declaration must be witnessed by a person who is either a practising solicitor, a commissioner for oaths, a peace commissioner or a notary public. (The certificate and statutory declaration is referred to as the Certificate of Monetary Donations.) It is an offence, under Section 25(1)(c) of the Act, for the responsible person of an accounting unit to fail to comply with this requirement. Timeliness of accounting unit returns for 2014 As set out above the responsible person of an accounting unit must, by 31 March each year, furnish a statement from the financial institution in which the political donations account is held together with the Certificate of Monetary Donations, to the Standards Commission. Only a small percentage of accounting units complied with their statutory deadline in this regard, as the following table shows: 5 Table of Accounting Units returns received in respect of 2014 Returns Received before Returns Received After Political Party deadline deadline Anti – Austerity Alliance 3 6 Catholic Democrats 0 1 Fianna Fáil 18 20 Fine Gael 13 40 Fís Nua 0 1 Green Party 10 8 Independents for Equality Movement 0 1 People before Profit Alliance 0 2 Sinn Féin 7 8 The Labour Party 14 23 United Left 1 0 Total 66 110 It is a matter of regret that some accounting units continue to fail to cooperate with the Commission and only comply with their statutory obligations once the matter is about to be referred to the Gardaí. Funds held by accounting units in 2014 Accounting units are not required to submit a donation statement to the Commission. Thus, the Commission cannot with certainty ascertain the provenance of the monies held in the accounting units’ political donations accounts. An examination of the bank account statements submitted indicates that the funds appear to be made up of donations, monies received on foot of fund-raising activities and transfers of money from party headquarters. It is understood that the transfer of funds from party headquarters usually arises from accounting units being allocated a share of the proceeds of a national draw which is in proportion to the number of tickets that the particular accounting unit sold. As a consequence of section 23(B)(8) of the Act, details of Certificates of Monetary Donations and bank statements furnished to the Standards Commission by political parties and their accounting units are not laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas nor put on public display. However, the Commission, having analysed the returns for 2014 submitted to it, has decided to publish aggregate figures for those political parties with a significant number of accounting units. This is to illustrate the need for further refinement of existing legislation to ensure that a reasonably accurate picture of political party finances is available to the public. The table below gives details of the position with regard to the number of accounting units of the larger parties from which the Standards Commission received returns for 2014. At the time of writing some 17 accounting units had failed to submit complete bank statements to the Commission and the table below does not show the total amount of funds held by all accounting units. The Commission is in continuing correspondence with those accounting units that have failed to furnish complete documentation. 6 No of Opening bank Year end bank accounting Political Party (total no of balance (of all balance (of all unit bank accounting units) returns received) * returns received) * statements € € received Anti - Austerity Alliance (9) 8 1,073 1,674 Fianna Fáíl (38) 36 346,216 187,169 Fine Gael (53) 48 519,063 314,357 Green Party (18) 14 44,529 32,357 Sinn Féin (15) 12 2,618 3,914 The Labour Party (37) 35 130,358 82,934 Others (6) 6 7,071 2,499 Total (176) 159 1,050,928 624,904 *Recorded from bank Statements Part 4 Donor Statements Section 24(1A) of the Act provides that an individual must furnish a Donation Statement/Statutory Declaration to the Standards Commission, if he/she, in a particular year, makes donations exceeding €1,500 in aggregate value to two or more persons who were members of the same political party when the donations were made, or to a political party, and to one or more of its members.