The Angry Hedgehog: Public Funding of Political Parties and Ireland

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Has the time come for Public Funding of Irish Political Parties?
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Ok I will not be the first to comment nor will I be the last. I am delighted that Fianna Fáil have dropped their Fundraising tent at the Galway Races. To summarize Mary O Rourke, on the Pat Kenny Show earlier this morning, it was something for the bigwigs and "the fashion was crazy & it was not just the women". She also stated that there was something wrong with arriving in Helicopters to the event, by invitation, and having champers whilst looking out at the world go by.

O'Cuiv this morning was also welcoming the decision, but also made the point that it is time for Fianna Fáil supporters to begin to contribute more to the Party coffers on a more regular basis. I would tend to agree with O'Cuiv and O'Rourke on this one but perhaps now is the time that parties would become publicly funded, to reduce the utter insanity in spending which comes with Campaigning.

Fundraising for any event is a such a tedious, time-consuming but ultimately necessary part of Everyday life. We have all done the bake-sales, the Gala Dinners, the Table-quizes, the Christmas Draws. Whatever we can do to help out whatever cause we are supporting at the time. And Jaysus do we know how to support our causes here in this little Republic.

In 2004, following the wake of the Tsunami in the South Pacific, we contributed €80 million of €100 million of the Irish Contibution towards the rescue effort. The remaining €20 million came from the Irish Government. The 2007 Trocaire Lentan Appeal raised €11.65 million from the generosity of Irish People. All worthy contributions and causes, regardless of some people's apprehension of where the money is being spent, appeal to people altruistic nature.

Whilst not wishing to dictate to Fianna Fáil supporters or Fine Gael supporters or any Irish political party I am curious to know why they have not been contributing to their Party of Choice (ie the one's who elected the 77 of the 166 TD's) in their droves. I know that some branches of Fianna Fáil do not have a membership fee for being a member of the party. Surely this would be a relatively good source of Income for the party. A Card-carrying member of a Political Party. Now that would be a novelty.

No No I think a question needs to be seriously posed. If as O'Cuiv says that "FF needs more money from its members" because "it would be possible given the enormous membership of Fianna Fáil", Then we have to examine the Election spending from last year's General Election. FF spent some €10 million on the General Election. Fine Gael spent €4.3 million in the same campaign. Those are obscene amounts of money. Perhaps then it is now time to consider Public funding of parties and the removal of the need "for more money from..members".

Oh but wait, Frank Connolly, Justine McCarthy & Emma Browne reported that

Fianna Fáil has built up the kitty of €3.5m from its current and accumulated party leader's allowances, paid by the exchequer. According to the Standards in Public Offices Commission's (SIPO) most recent report, the party received €2.473m in 2005 to add to its existing surplus of €994,658. Fine Gael, in contrast, had no money left over from previous allocations.

Source: Village Magazine (September, 2006)

So lets see initially I was going to go and say that perhaps we should scrap Private donations and go with Public funding of Political Parties. Well that what Village found out was Indirect Public Funding of Political Parties. However I think perhaps Direct Public Funding is still a route that we should go down. We can accuse those in power of abusing their position and contributing to a charity ie themselves. However with the Public Funding of Parties, we can at least regulate somewhat how much obscene money is spent on a General Election.

I appreciate that some people will disagree with my sentiments. They will argue that they are over-paid, under-worked, un-representative and now You want to offer more money to run their campaigns when the Elections run around. Fair enough.

Public funding would have to be accompanied by other reforms within the political arena, such as a limitation of terms TDs are allowed to be served to reduce Family Dynasty's (Honestly a Political "career" is a stupid Idea; It is a duty, which one serves not a Career!), a reduction to a relatively OK Salary, Prohibition of getting a Pension until one retires from Work & not from the Dáil etc. Unless those reforms come along, no public will nor should agree with Public Funding of parties; However how many Nurses could €10 million pay for? How many School teachers would €10 million pay for? (€10million divided by €36,000/annum=277). Perhaps Public Funding is worth it in the long run, if it means that more Services become available.

For some more Information on Public Funding see here: